QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION AND STANDARDIZATION OF TOXIC ELEMENTS BY USING INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS SPECTROMETRY (ICPMS) FROM HEBAL MEDICINES

Heavy metals are naturally occurring elements that have higher atomic weight and density greater than that of water. Those being widely used in domestic, agricultural and medical products have led to their wide distribution in the environment, raising concerns over their potential effects on human health. Their toxicity depends on several factors including those of their dose, route of exposure as well as the age, gender, genetics and nutritional status of exposed individuals. Because of their high degree of toxicity mercury, cadmium, lead and arsenic rank among the top priority of hazardous metals that are of public health significance. Use of herbal medicines is growing worldwide because of their minimal side effects. Herbal medicines require standardization with implementation and constant review of technical standards of production and effective quality control methods. It is necessary to promote this study in the view of importance of herbal medicines. From this perspective, the current submission on toxic elemental determination may pave the way for further clinical studies. These metals can bind to vital cellular components such as structural proteins, enzymes and nucleic acid and interfere with their functions. In human beings, these metals can cause severe physiological and health effects. Hence, it was thought to be of utmost importance to study their impact on human health. Some indispensable herbal medicines are to were scanned for toxic elements, like Hg (Mercury), Cd (Cadmium), Pb (lead), As (Arsenic) etc. and these metals are then determined quantitatively by using modern technique of ICP-MS, which should be incorporated in routine quality control parameters.