Journal
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
Volume 11, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2020.595335
Keywords
heavy metal; risk assessment; safety and quality; herbal mecidine; extrinsic contamination
Categories
Funding
- Beijing Nova Program [Z181100006218020]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the central public welfare research institutes [ZZ13-AQ-049]
- Major science and technology projects of Yunnan province [2018ZF011]
- National Key RD Plan [2018YFC1706302]
- National Science and Technology Major Project for Significant New Drugs Development [2019ZX09201005-006001]
- National Natural Science Foundation [81973429]
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Investigation using ICP-MS technology on 1773 herbal samples globally revealed that 30.51% of the samples had at least one heavy metal above the limit. In exposure assessment, risks of lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury in 25 herbs exceeded acceptable levels, with intake of these heavy metals exceeding Provisional Tolerable Daily Intakes in multiple herbs.
Heavy metal contamination in herbal medicines is a global threat to human beings especially at levels above known threshold concentrations. The concentrations of five heavy metals cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg) and copper (Cu) were investigated using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) with 1773 samples around the world. According to Chinese Pharmacopoeia, 30.51% (541) samples were detected with at least one over-limit metal. The over-limit ratio for Pb was 5.75% (102), Cd at 4.96% (88), As at 4.17% (74), Hg at 3.78% (67), and of Cu, 1.75% (31). For exposure assessment, Pb, Cd, As, and Hg have resulted in higher than acceptable risks in 25 kinds of herbs. The maximal Estimated Daily Intake of Pb in seven herbs, of Cd in five, of Hg in four, and As in three exceeded their corresponding Provisional Tolerable Daily Intakes. In total 25 kinds of herbs present an unacceptable risk as assessed with the Hazard Quotient or Hazard Index. Additionally, the carcinogenic risks were all under acceptable limits. Notably, As posed the highest risk in all indicators including Estimated Daily Intake, Hazard Index, and carcinogenic risks. Therefore further study on enrichment effect of different states of As and special attention to monitoring shall be placed on As related contamination.
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