INTERNATIONAL 8th USBİLİM HEALTH, ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES CONGRESS
INVESTIGATION OF SOME MEDICINAL AROMATIC PLANTS IN TERMS OF HEAVY METAL CONTENT
Yayıncı:
Akademik Paylaşım Platformu Publishing House - APP Publications
Medicinal and aromatic plants have been used since ancient times for their numerous health and healing properties. In addition to their use for medicinal purposes, they are also used as spices and teas due to their desirable taste and smell. The aim of this study is to review and compile scientific studies on the heavy metal contents in medicinal aromatic plants frequently used by the public and their effects on human health. When the literatures are examined, a wide variety of spectrometric methods such as graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS), flame atomic absorption spectrometry (F- AAS), inductively coupled plasma optical-emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) or instrumental neutron activation analysis (INNA) are used to determine the elemental content of medicinal aromatic plants.. Contaminated irrigation water, atmospheric dust, automobile and industrial exhausts, pesticides, fertilizers and soils contaminated with heavy metals play an important role in the contamination of medicinal plants. In the reviewed literatures, it was seen that some of the heavy metal values of the studied medicinal plants were below the values determined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and some were above these values. As a result of our literature evaluations, it was concluded that determining the frequency of consumption and dosage of medicinal aromatic plants, which are frequently preferred by the public for the treatment of some diseases and whose positive effects cannot be ignored, is very important for human health and that such plants should be consumed in a dose-controlled manner.
