Analysis of the Mercury in commonly used Medicinal Plants

Medicinal plants are used in various herbal products as food supplements and food additive. The requirement of medicinal plants is tremendously increasing in the global market. The presence of variousl heavy metals such as Arsenic, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickle,silver, Atimony,Copper etc in herbal formulations result in several adverse effects. The present study was done to determine the presence of Mercury in some of the selected medicinal plants namely Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R.Br. (Sariba), Cyperus rotundus L. (Musta), Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Yashtimadhu), Rubia cordifolia L. (Manjishta), Eclipta alba Hassk (Bhringaraj), Hedychium spicatum Ham.ex Smith (Karchura), Emblica officinalis Gaertn. (Amalaki) and Acacia concinna (Willd.) DC. (Shikakai), which were procured from local market of Chennai, Tirupati and Hyderabad. The samples were digested by Wet digestion method and analysed by UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The results were compared with permissible limits recommended by WHO. Mean levels were evaluated with respect to their procurement. It was found that the analyzed plant species contained safe levels of the heavy metals concentration excepting Sariba Tirupati sample, Yastimadhu Chennai sample and Manjishta Hyderabad sample. There was a considerable variation of heavy metal concentration for the examined medicinal plant species. This may be due to the difference in physiological properties of plant uptake