Inorganic analysis of herbal drugs, Part I: Metal determination in herbal drugs originating from medicinal plants of the family Lamiacae

Abstract

Elemental profiles of the total analyte content of major, minor and trace elements (Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, K, Ca, Mg, Al, Ba and B) in 8 herbal drugs, originating from medicinal plants of the family Lamiacae, were determined. Flame atomic absorption/ emission spectroscopy (FAAS/FAES), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) were applied, and the advantages and limitations of these techniques are also discussed. The whole procedure, from sample preparation via dissolution to the actual measurements, was validated by using CRM (NIST 1573a - Tomato leaves). The recovery values obtained were in the range 90.64 - 101.58 %. A high degree of similarity in their elemental profiles was noticed from the results of qualitative analysis, while quantitative analysis shows significant diversity due to the variety of the influencing sources. The medicinal plants investigated in this work contained Cu (5.92- 14.79 mg kg-1), Zn (15.0 - 43.0 mg kg-1), Mn (25 - 111 mg kg-1), Fe (74 - 546 mg kg-1), K (1.80 - 6.24 %), Ca (0.90 - 1.43 %), Mg (0.17 - 0.67 %), Al (49 - 378 mg kg-1), Ba (15.53 - 69.84 mg kg-1) and B (34.7 - 56.5 mg kg-1).