Health risk assessment of trace elements in medicinal plants consumed as medicine and food in Rize, Turkey

Abstract

Trace element (Cd, Pb, Ni, Fe, Zn, Cu, Cr, Co and Mn) levels were measured using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) in twelve different medicinal plants consumed as medicine and food in Rize, Turkey in the study. Medicinal plants were supplied from local herbalists in November 2018. the concentrations of trace elements in the medicinal plants varied between 0.12 and 0.62 mg kg(-1) for Cd, 0.12 and 1.87 mg kg(-1) for Pb, 0.25 and 3.37 mg kg(-1) for Ni, 20.47 and 342.82 mg kg(-1) for Fe, 8.61 and 67.79 mg kg(-1) for Zn, 0.62 and 10.11 mg kg(-1) for Cu, 0.12 and 2.87 mg kg(-1) for Cr and 3.87 and 302.75 mg kg(-1) for Mn. the concentrations of Co were determined to be 0.12 and 0.25 mg kg(-1) for two plants. the concentrations of trace elements obtained in this study were compared with the WHO permissible limits and the trace element levels obtained in relevant studies in the literature. Moreover, Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the relationship between the trace elements. the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) values were calculated to examine the non-carcinogenic health risks from individual element and combined elements for an adult due to medicinal plant consumption. the HQ and HI values for the trace elements in the medicinal plants were found to be lower than 1. Therefore, the medicinal plants examined in this study do not pose a risk to human health in terms of the trace elements.