Peculiarities of heavy metal and arsenic trans-medium transition along the chain "soil - medicinal plant material - water etracts"

Low-quality herbal raw materials and the products obtained from them are important sources of various ecotoxicants, especially heavy metals, entering the human body. Aqueous extractions of medicinal plant raw materials - decoctions and infusions - are of a particular interest in this respect - as they are the most accessible and frequently used dosage forms in medical and pharmaceutical practice and traditional medicine, being at present insufficiently studied as sources of intake of various microelements in the human body. Objective: to investigate the peculiarities of heavy metals and arsenic trans-mediated transition along the chain "soil - medicinal plant raw materials - infusions and decoctions". Materials and methods. Raw materials were harvested during the flowering period in Voronezh Biosphere Reserve. The microelement composition of the samples was studied by mass spectroscopy on an ELAN-DRC device. Results. The content of toxic microelements estimated in medicinal plant raw materials of natural phytocenosis of Voronezh region does not exceed the pharmacopoeial requirements, and their total proportion in the total mineral complex - not more than 0.011%. All made infusions and decoctions from the studied raw materials infusions and decoctions also corresponded to pharmacopoeial requirements on the content of normalized elements. The efficiency of cadmium transfer in infusions and decoctions from medicinal plant raw materials ranged from 9.02% to 55.00%, arsenic - from 26.33% to 68.46%, lead - from 1.95% to 76.15%. In the chain "soil - medicinal plant material - water extracts" normalized elements in LRS to the greatest extent migrated to the decoction of burdock root: cadmium - 74.91%, arsenic - 13.98%, lead - 6.02%. The lowest degree of transition was noted for the infusion of the studied flowers: for cadmium - 4.78%, arsenic - 0.46%, lead - 0.73%. Conclusion. The findings are of great interest and may serve both for further research and for using in medical and pharmaceutical practice.