The plants that make up herbal tea have a complex chemical composition and can be related to drug collections and have various pharmacological properties that affect human health. In addition to organic acids, vitamins, flavonoids, essential oils, the medicinal properties of plants are affected by macro- and microelements included in their composition. Macronutrients and microelements determine the medicinal properties of plants, are substances necessary for human growth and normal development. The composition of seven herbal teas developed in the scientific center of the North Ossetian State University after K.L. Khetagurov, each of which contains from 3 to 8 plant components was analyzed. Plant material was collected in the summer of 2018 in the mountainous and foothill areas of North Ossetia (Central Caucasus). Using instrumental neutron activation analysis and atomic absorption spectrometry, the presence and determination of 37 elements was carried out for the first time in herbal teas (Na, Mg, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Mo, In, Sb, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Sm, Tb, Hf, Ta, W, Au, Th, and U). The results are discussed in terms of using the studied herbal teas as a safe source of trace elements. Herbal teas can be used as functional foods that are not a drug, but replenish the human body with important compounds and elements that have a definite positive effect on the body.

Herbal infusions are consumed worldwide owing to their beneficial properties. Cultivated or obtained from the wild, herbal raw plant materials may contain trace elements at various levels. This study relates to the release of beneficial and potentially toxic trace elements from herbal preparations during infusion. The elemental contents of seven commercially available herbal tea products were determined prior to and following two modes of infusion. Teabags (of equal herb content) were infused in 200 mL of boiling bottled water “Holy Spirit” for 15 and 45 min, in glass beakers. The total content of 57 elements including heavy metals, rare earth elements, as well as Th and U, were determined by ICP-MS and ICP-AES. The metals present in the highest concentrations were K, Ca, P, and S. Potassium, Mg, Co, Ni, As, Rb, and Cs had the highest extractability, whereas Ga, Ge, Se, Zr, Nb, Te, Er, Yb, W, Tl, and U had the lowest extractability.

The moss biomonitoring technique was used for assessment of air pollution in the central part of Georgia, Caucasus, in the framework of the UNECE ICP Vegetation. A total of 35 major and trace elements were determined by two complementary analytical techniques, epithermal neutron activation analysis (Na, Mg, Al, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Se, B, Rb, Sr, Zr, Mo, Sb, I, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Yb, Hf, Ta, W, Th, and U) and atomic absorption spectrometry (Cu, Cd, and Pb) in the moss samples collected in 2019. Principal Component Analyses was applied to show the association between the elements in the study area. Four factors were determined, of which two are of geogenic origin (Factor 1 including Na, Al, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Th, and U and Factor 3 with As, Sb, and W), mixed geogenic–anthropogenic (F2 with Cl, K, Zn, Se, Br, I, and Cu) and anthropogenic (F4 comprising Ca, Cd, Pb, and Br). Geographic information system (GIS) technologies were used to construct distributions maps of factor scores over the investigated territory. Comparison of the median values with the analogous data of moss biomonitoring in countries with similar climatic conditions was carried out.