Metals Content in Herbal Supplements

• Published in: Biological trace element research 2017-02, Vol.175 (2), p.488-494
• Main Authors: Barrella, Michelle Vieira, Heringer, Otavio Arruda, Cardoso, Priscylla Maria Martins, Pimentel, Elisangela Flavia, Scherer, Rodrigo, Lenz, Dominik, Endringer, Denise C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum; Barium; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Brazil; Cadmium; Camellia sinensis; Chromium; Cissus; Citrus aurantium; Cobalt; Cordia; Dietary supplements; Food contamination & poisoning; Herbal medicine; Humans; Ilex; Life Sciences; Lithium; Manganese; Metals; Metals - analysis; Molybdenum; Nickel; Nutrition; Oncology; Plant extracts; Plants, Medicinal - chemistry; Product safety; Quality assurance; Quality control; Spectrometry; Vanadium; Weight loss products
• ISSN: 0163-4984; 1559-0720
• DOI: 10.1007/s12011-016-0776-2

Obesity has become an international epidemic. To evaluate the level of metals in extracts of plants prescribed as weight loss supplements, different brands containing Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Citrus aurantium L., Cordia ecalyculata Vell, Ilex paraguariensis A. St.—Hil, Cissus quadrangularis L., Senna alexandrina Mill were purchased in local market, hot acid digested, and analyzed while metal content by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, ICP-OES. Quality assurance and quality control tests were carried out in order to monitor and control the reliability of the analytical method. For each metal evaluated, a calibration curve was prepared with certified reference material. The recovery test was performed for each batch of samples. Analyses were performed in triplicate. Quantification of aluminum, barium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, vanadium, and zinc were determined. The metals most frequently detected were manganese (15.3–329,60 mg kg -1 ) aluminum (11.76–342.4 mg kg -1 ), and iron (11.14–73.01 mg kg -1 ) with higher levels in products containing C. sinensis China origin, I. paraguariensis Brazilian origin, C. quadrangularis , and C. aurantium China origin, respectively. To ensure safety consumption, an adequacy of the certification of Brazilian suppliers for herbal weight loss products is indispensable.