QUANTITATIVE AAS STIMATION OF HEAVY METALS AND TRACE ELEMENTS IN MARKETED AYURVEDIC CHURNA PREPARATIONS IN INDIA

Churna preparations are an important and widely used form of Ayurvedic herbal formulations in India. These are prepared by mixing powdered form of single or mixture of several crude drugs meant to be dispensed as such. Since the quality of raw material plays an important role in the overall quality of a herbal formulation due to common practice of collecting and processing medicinal plants from different geographical sources and the fact presence of certain trace elements and heavy metals have a great significance in this matter, the present study is based on the screening of 19 popular herbal Churna preparations sold in the Indian market for the quantitative analysis of essential trace and toxic heavy metals by atomic absorption spectrometry. Heavy metals like Pb, Cd and trace metals like Ca, Mg, Al, Cu, Zn were determined using flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) and heavy metals such as As and Hg were determined by hydride generation technique (cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometery).  The results reveal that among the trace (micronutrients) metals Ca and Mg were found in highest amount. Sixteen samples for Hg content and eight for Pb content were exceeding the WHO permissible limits. Arsenic was found below the permissible limit while Cd was above the permissible limit in all the tested samples. In conclusion, the quality of herbal Churna preparations sold in India market is questionable and need to be regulated efficiently before launching in to the market. Besides, the present paper provides a simple, convenient and reliable AAS method for the quantitative analysis of trace and heavy metals in herbal products which can be utilized for industrial purpose.