Metals in Herbal Drugs from Himalayan Region Yogesh B. Pakade • Avnesh Kumari • Surjeet Singh • Ruchi Sharma • Dhananjay Kumar Tewary Received: 30 June 2010 / Accepted: 19 November 2010 / Published online: 17 December 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Various herbal products from Himalayan region may provide a huge source of supply in the domestic and international markets. In this study, the heavy metal load in various herbal drugs of the region was investigated. The studied toxic elements were present in the herbal drugs (0.2–8.34 mg/kg As, 0.11–0.48 mg/kg Cd, 2.5–6.0 mg/kg Pb). Zinc was found in the range 7–32 mg/kg and all the samples were free from mercury contamination. Keywords Heavy metal Á Toxic Á Zinc Á AAS Á Herbal drugs The herbal drugs are getting importance throughout the world and consumed by masses during the last few decades as evidenced by rapidly growing global and national markets of herbal drugs. Now people rely more on herbal drugs than the synthetic drugs due to their high prices and harmful side effects (Tang et al. 2007). Herbal drugs have much positive points over the allopathic system of medi- cine. This trend is growing, not only in developing coun- tries but also in developed countries. According to World Bank, trade in herbal industry reaches about US $ 62 bil- lion, with annual increase of 5%–15% (Patwardhan et al. 2003). However there is an inherent health risk associated with many of these medicines due to presence of some toxicants including heavy metals. The major source of metal contamination is agricultural expedients, such as cadmium containing dung, organic mercury fungicides, and the insecticide lead arsenate (Gosslim et al. 1984). Recently a study conducted on ayurvedic medicines by Harvard Medical School (Saper et al. 2004) also reported that some of these drugs had potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury and arsenic. Lead is widely distributed in spices and herbal plants (Divrikli et al. 2003; De Leonardis et al. 2000). Cadmium in foods is mostly derived from various sources of environmental contamination (Adriano 2001). The source of contamination of arsenic (As) is mainly due to use of fertilizers and pesticides, or due to other pollutions the soil As level could be elevated (Chen et al. 2006; Sierra-Alvarez et al. 2006). Additional sources of heavy metal contamination are rainfall, traffic density, use of oil or fossil fuels for heating. Contamination may also occur during processing in industries and leaching of metals from metallic containers during storage (Alabdula ´aly and Mujahid 2009). One of the major causes of adverse health effects is directly linked to presence of heavy metals in herbal medi- cines. Heavy metals may cause serious health hazards such as renal failure, symptoms of chronic toxicity and liver damage (Andrew et al. 2003 Shaw et al. 1997). Cadmium is a non-essential element in foods and natural waters, and it accumulates principally in the kidneys and liver. Cd causes osteomalacia and pyeloephritis. Amongest known toxic heavy metals, lead (Pb) in any form seems to be a ubiquitous environmental poison to any form of life (D’Souza et al. 2002). Pb may cause renal tumors and other carcinomas. However, Zn is less toxic than former ones. Due to these reasons, increasing popularity of herbal medicines has also brought concern and fears because the quality, safety and batch to batch consistency of herbal formulations are not up Y. B. Pakade Á A. Kumari Á S. Singh Á R. Sharma Á D. K. Tewary (&) Hill Area Tea Science Division, Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Palampur 176061, India e-mail: dhananjaytewary@yahoo.co.uk Y. B. Pakade e-mail: yogesh_pakade@yahoo.com 123 Bull Environ Contam Toxicol (2011) 86:133–136 DOI 10.1007/s00128-010-0161-3