Concentrations and Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Medicinal Herbs from Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The concentrations of potentially toxic elements (Fe, Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Zn) in most consumed medicinal herbs in Northern Nigeria were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). Twenty medicinal herbs were selected and purchased from the local markets. The findings of the study revealed that the investigated herb samples contained considerable levels of elements; Cu, Fe, Pb, Cd, and Cr above the permissible limits. The health risk observed as hazard index (HI) indicated that values were >1, in some samples. Therefore, the consumption of these studied medicinal herbs should be monitored to prevent the health implication due to a high level of these elements in the medicinal herbs.

Geochemical, ecological, and health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the surrounding soil of a cement plant

“…However, compared with the background values of the world average for soil, the mean concentrations of the investigated PTEs were lower than the world average elemental values [32]. The PTE concentrations observed in this study are lower than those reported outside Nigeria [29,[33][34][35] and in Nigeria [19][20][21]36], but in comparable with those at Karst, Brazil [37], Odajana, Nigeria [28], and Canakale-Ezine, Turkey [39] presented in (Table 2), which indicate that cement production activities had less in uence in the study areas. Moreover, it has been reported that an estimation of adverse health effects associated with PTEs, based on concentrations is not su cient and must be followed with other estimated indices [16].…”

“…Moreover, studies of PTE concentrations and risk assessment on soils have been reported in Nigeria [12,[18][19][20][21]. However, limited or no study have been reported on geochemical, and risk assessments of the PTE study area.…”