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Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates

Herbs are extensively consumed in the United Arab Emirates for their flavoring and medicinal properties. This study aimed at determining the concentration of heavy metals in selected traditional herbs consumed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A total of 81 samples of seven herbs, parsley (Petrosel...

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Autores principales: Dghaim, Rania, Al Khatib, Safa, Rasool, Husna, Ali Khan, Munawwar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4426653/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26000023
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/973878
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author Dghaim, Rania
Al Khatib, Safa
Rasool, Husna
Ali Khan, Munawwar
author_facet Dghaim, Rania
Al Khatib, Safa
Rasool, Husna
Ali Khan, Munawwar
author_sort Dghaim, Rania
collection PubMed
description Herbs are extensively consumed in the United Arab Emirates for their flavoring and medicinal properties. This study aimed at determining the concentration of heavy metals in selected traditional herbs consumed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A total of 81 samples of seven herbs, parsley (Petroselinum crispum), basil (Ocimum basilicum), sage (Salvia officinalis), oregano (Origanum vulgare), mint (Mentha spicata), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), and chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), were purchased from the local market in Dubai and analyzed for their cadmium, lead, copper, iron, and zinc contents. Microwave-assisted digestion was applied for the dissolution of the samples and heavy metals concentration was determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). Metals were found to be present in varied concentrations in the herb samples. The concentration ranges were found as follows: less than 0.1–1.11 mg·kg(−1) for cadmium, less than 1.0–23.52 mg·kg(−1) for lead, 1.44–156.24 mg·kg(−1) for copper, 12.65–146.67 mg·kg(−1) for zinc, and 81.25–1101.22 mg·kg(−1) for iron. The findings of the study suggest that most of the analyzed herbs contained unsafe levels of heavy metals that exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits (PL).
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spelling pubmed-44266532015-05-21 Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates Dghaim, Rania Al Khatib, Safa Rasool, Husna Ali Khan, Munawwar J Environ Public Health Research Article Herbs are extensively consumed in the United Arab Emirates for their flavoring and medicinal properties. This study aimed at determining the concentration of heavy metals in selected traditional herbs consumed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A total of 81 samples of seven herbs, parsley (Petroselinum crispum), basil (Ocimum basilicum), sage (Salvia officinalis), oregano (Origanum vulgare), mint (Mentha spicata), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), and chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), were purchased from the local market in Dubai and analyzed for their cadmium, lead, copper, iron, and zinc contents. Microwave-assisted digestion was applied for the dissolution of the samples and heavy metals concentration was determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). Metals were found to be present in varied concentrations in the herb samples. The concentration ranges were found as follows: less than 0.1–1.11 mg·kg(−1) for cadmium, less than 1.0–23.52 mg·kg(−1) for lead, 1.44–156.24 mg·kg(−1) for copper, 12.65–146.67 mg·kg(−1) for zinc, and 81.25–1101.22 mg·kg(−1) for iron. The findings of the study suggest that most of the analyzed herbs contained unsafe levels of heavy metals that exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits (PL). Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4426653/ /pubmed/26000023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/973878 Text en Copyright © 2015 Rania Dghaim et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dghaim, Rania
Al Khatib, Safa
Rasool, Husna
Ali Khan, Munawwar
Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates
title Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates
title_full Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates
title_fullStr Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates
title_full_unstemmed Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates
title_short Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Traditional Herbs Commonly Consumed in the United Arab Emirates
title_sort determination of heavy metals concentration in traditional herbs commonly consumed in the united arab emirates
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4426653/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26000023
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/973878
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