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In this review, we evaluate the reports published between 1993 and 2011 that address the heavy metal accumulation in 88 medicinal plant species. We compare the safe limits for heavy metals set by governmental agencies vs. the levels at which such metals actually exist in selected medicinal plants. We also evaluate the uses and effectiveness of medicinal plants in health care, and assess the hazards of medicinal plant uses, in view of the growing worldwide use of medicinal plants. From our extensive review of the literature, we discovered that a maximum permissible level (MPL) of Pb is exceeded in 21 plant medicine species, Cd in 44 species, and Hg in 10 species. Vetiveria zizanioides a potential candidate species for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases absorb a wide range of heavy metals from metal-contaminated soils. We believe that this species is the single most impressive example of a potentially hazardous medicinal plant. Based on our review, we endorse the hypothesis that heavy metal accumulation by medicinal plants is mainly caused by extraction of soluble metals from contaminated soil, sediments and air. One continuing problem in protecting consumers of plant-based medicines is that permissible levels of all heavy metals in herbal medicine have not yet been standardized by regulating governmental entities. Moreover, there are few limit tests that exist for heavy metal content of medicinal plants, or permissible limits for essential dietary minerals, in most medicinal plants. The dearth of such limits hamstrings development of medicinal plant research and delays the release of either new or improved versions of medicinal plants or their components. In the present review, we emphasize that medicinal plants are often subjected to heavy metal contamination and that the levels at which these heavy metals sometimes occur exceeds permissible levels for some species. Therefore, collecting medicinal plants from areas that are, or may be, contaminated should be discouraged and banned if possible.

This review discusses the techniques available for detecting and inactivating of pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste. In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is being given special attention, with a thorough examination of all possible transmission pathways linked to the selected waste matrices. Despite the lack of works focused on landfill leachate, a systematic review method, based on cluster analysis, allows to analyze the available papers devoted to sewage sludge and wastewater, allowing to focalize the work on technologies able to detect and treat pathogens. In this work, great attention is also devoted to infectivity and transmission mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, the literature analysis shows that sewage sludge and landfill leachate seem to have a remote chance to act as a virus transmission route (pollution-to-human transmission) due to improper collection and treatment of municipal wastewater and solid waste. However due to the incertitude about virus infectivity, these possibilities cannot be excluded and need further investigation. As a conclusion, this paper shows that additional research is required not only on the coronavirus-specific disinfection, but also the regular surveillance or monitoring of viral loads in sewage sludge, wastewater, and landfill leachate. The disinfection strategies need to be optimized in terms of dosage and potential adverse impacts like antimicrobial resistance, among many other factors. Finally, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms in sewage sludge, wastewater, and landfill leachate can hamper the possibility to ensure safe water and public health in economically marginalized countries and hinder the realization of the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs).

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