Herbal tea can be use for therapeutic or nutritional purposes, depending on the chemical constituents present. This study aims at evaluating phytochemical, physicochemical parameters and elemental contents of herbal teas commonly consumed in Nigeria. Level of essential and toxic metals in medicinal plants is a matter of great concern all over the world. Six different brands of herbal teas were analysed in this study. Phytochemical screening results showed the presence of tannins, steroids, terpenoids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids and phlobatannins, while the physicochemical parameters which includes moistures content, ash, water extractive and alcohol extractive matter values ranges from 7.55 to 21.20, 5.52 to 9.28, 8.86 to 14.80 and 4.22 to 7.05%, respectively. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used for the elemental analysis of different teas in which the content ranges from 0.83 to 2.63, 3.28 to 5.96, 7.45 to 86.67, 0.53 to 2.85 and 1.11 to 9.73 µg/g for chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn), respectively. The outcome of this study serves as an important contribution to knowledge in establishing quality parameters for the standardization of herbal tea in Nigeria.

This study determined toxic heavy metal concentration in Local andand 70% of the samples were not safe for the average users. While the ingested daily intake in the Local and the Foreign samples indicated 50% and 90% of the samples were also not safe for high users as compared to WHO limit (20 µg/g) for Lead specified in cosmetic. Thus, continuous usage of these lipsticks can increase rate of exposure of the body system to Lead related disease conditions such as cancer which is known to be detrimental.

Essential minerals are those that are necessary for normal physiological and biological functions of human body. They act as catalysts such that only trace amount are necessary for cellular function. The study analyzed nine (9) different sex-drive herbal preparations used in the Northwestern part of Nigeria for essential minerals using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric (AAS) method in order to ascertain relationship between sex-drive and the mineral content of these herbal medicines. The result obtained shows the range of the mean concentration of Fe, Cu, Mn, and Zn to be (231.13-440.64)µg/g, (7.74-25.93)µg/g, (14.09-59.66)µg/g and (6.86-74.41)µg/g respectively. The presence of Fe, Cu and Zn indicated the potential role of these herbal preparations in alleviation of sexual dysfunction problems and serves as sex-drivers. The average concentration of Cu and Zn obtained in the samples were above the World Health Organization (WHO) and US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) permissible limit in herbal drugs as Cu (20ppm) and Zn (50ppm). The consumers' of these products need to be cautioned otherwise the tendency of overload which will further result to health hazard is certain.