Elemental Composition of Infusions of Herbs (Tisanes) of North Ossetia (the Caucasus)

Abstract

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.

Elemental Analysis of Five Medicinal Plants Species Growing in North Ossetia Using Neutron Activation Analysis

“…The elemental composition of plants and soils was determined using neutron activation analysis at the IBR-2 reactor (Dubna, Russia). More details about sample irradiation and analysis can be found in [1,15,18,19].…”

“…This study is a continuation of research in the field of studying the accumulation of elements by medicinal and essential oil plants [2,[15][16][17][18].…”

“…It is also important to mention that trace elements are essential for higher plants, and in humans, only trace amounts are acceptable [1]; in recent years, the number of studies performed in different countries has increased, in which it was shown that some plants contain high levels of potentially toxic elements [4,5,[9][10][11][12][13]. For these reasons, it is important to control the level of potentially toxic elements in medicinal plants in order to assess their safety [14,15].…”