Food Science and Technology Library

Herbal drugs have gained much popularity as alternative medicine among residents of the northern part of Nigeria, taking advantage of abundant medicinal plants in the region. This study therefore investigated the levels of some selected heavy metals (Cd, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn) in five identified herbal drugs sold in Andaza town, Kiyawa local Government area of Jigawa State. Preparation of the samples was done using a wet digestion method with HNO3 and HCl as digestion acids and the metals were determined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The health risk assessment (HRA) for adults and children was done by using the estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI) and target cancer risk (TCR). The concentrations of heavy metals on dry weight (dw) basis in this study fell within the range (mg/kg dw, mean±SD)): Cd (0.156-0.312, 0.221±0.065), Hg (8.58-16.7, 12.7±3.78), Ni (0.960-2.74, 1.67±0.698), Zn (4.26-10.1, 6.17±2.34) and Pb (0.876-1.91). Pb was not detected in two out of the five samples and therefore the mean±SD of Pb was not computed. A comparison of the results with the World Health Organisation (WHO) maximum permissible limit showed that Hg levels were far above the permissible limit in all the samples; two samples had Cd values above the maximum limit. The concentrations of Ni, Zn and Pb in all the samples were within the recommended levels of WHO. Results of HRA showed that THQ were less than 1 in the analyzed metals except for Hg with relatively high values in both adults (70 kg body weight) and children (24 kg body weight) categories and this may pose a potential health risk to consumers. Results of the percentage non-carcinogenic risk (NCR) of each metal showed that Hg contributed more than 95% to HI (the overall NCR) in each sample. TCR of Pb indicates moderate to high cancer risk whereas, that of CD showed high to very high cancer risk if the samples are consumed for a long period of time. It is therefore important that consumption of these medicines should be monitored and regulated in order for consumers to avoid future health challenges.