The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in our environment, food and herbal drugs have been linked to many negative health impacts in human. This has elicited a growing interest in scientific investigation into qualitative and quantitative evaluation of PAHs in foods, drugs and environment herbal drugs. The aim of this study was to determine PAHs in some antimalarial herbal drugs sold in southwest Nigeria and to estimate their potential health risks. Five antimalarial herbal drugs found in local market in southwest Nigeria were purchased and used for this study. The PAHs in these herbal drugs samples were extracted using an ultrasonicator and analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). Daily exposure and cancer risk parameters of the PAHs were estimated. The sum of PAHs in the samples ranged from 26.38 in sample E to 33.54 mg/kg in sample D while an average sum of the PAHs in the five samples was 29.25 mg/kg. The percentage of carcinogenic PAHs in these herbal drugs ranged from 7.99% in sample D to 15.78% in sample C. The source diagnostic indices showed that the source of PAHs in all the five antimalarial herbal drugs were pyrogenic in nature. The cancer risk estimated for children, preteen and adult with body weight 19 kg, 48 kg and 65 kg using these herbal drugs ranged from 0.64 x 10-7 to 3.16 x 10-7. The estimated cancer risk values of the five herbal drugs are below the minimum (1 x 10-6) that can cause cancer which is as established by USEPA. This suggests that the use of any of the selected antimalarial herbal drugs may not cause cancer. However, overdose and bioaccumulation cases, calls for the need for analytical information on the profile of PAHs in the herbal drugs.

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