Profile of heavy metals in medicinal plants collected from different areas of Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Abd Ei-Salam, NM; Ahmad, S; Murad, W; Iqbal, T; Zuman, L; Bibi, A; Rehman, A; Ullah, R; Mohammad, Z; Shad, AA
Medicinal plants have got important hold up in the current time for their curative potentials. The present study deals with the evolution of the elemental analysis of ten medicinal plants namely Arabidopsis arenosa, Cistanche tubulosa, Nonea micrantha, Ornithopus compressus, Orobanche ramosa, Ifloga spicata, Ballota pseudodicatmnus, Cryptantha crassisepala, Farsetia aegyptia and Heliotropium bacciferum. All these plants were collected from different areas of District Karak. Out of the nine heavy metals analyzed, Iron, Zinc, Cobalt, Copper and Manganese are considered as essential for human health and the remaining four elements including Chromium, Nickel, Cadmium and Lead are considered non essential. The heavy metals were analyzed using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (FAAS). The highest concentrations of Fe, 161.55 mg/kg in Cryptantha crassisepala, Zn, 52.07 mg/kg in Cistanche tubulosa, Co, 28.35 mg/kg in Orobanche ramosa, Cu, 35.37 mg/kg in Ifloga spicata, Mn, 36.75 mg/kg in Orobanche ramose, Cr, 1.00 mg/kg in Ornithopus compressus, Ni, 7.05 mg/kg in Heliotropium bacciferum, Cd 1.12 mg/kg in Ballota pseudodicatmnus and Pb, 19.81 mg/kg in Cryptantha crassisepala were noted.