Investigation of selected metallic impurities in antimalarial Herbal Decoctions ‘AGBO IBA’ collected from four locations in Lagos State, Nigeria
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2019
Authors
Alaribe, S.C.
Oladipupo, A.R.
Musah, A.
Coker, H.A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNILAG, Unilag Journal of Medicine, Science and Technology
Abstract
Herbs constitute a common medicinal alternative for disease treatment in many cultures around
the world. In Nigeria, these medicinal herbs are widely used in the treatment and prevention of
various ailments including malaria, a global disease endemic to the tropics. In spite of their
cultural trust and claimed medicinal properties, lack of standardization and poor-quality
presentation make medicinal scientists to be wary of herbal medicinal preparations. However, due
to their increasing patronage, the safety and quality of these herbal medicines have become
increasingly important for health authorities, scientific community and the public alike. Thus this
study was aimed at determining the amount of selected heavy metals in a herbal antimalarial
decoction popularly known as ‘Agbo iba’ consumed in selected areas of Lagos.
The investigated heavy metals: Pb, Ni, Hg and Cd were detected using Atomic Absorption
Spectroscopy (AAS) after sample pretreatment with wet digestion using HNO3. Heavy metal
concentrations in the decoctions were found to be in the range of 0.331 - 0.896 mg/L for Pb, 0.185
- 0.338 mg/L for Ni, 1.612 - 17.894 mg/L for Hg, while cadmium was not detected in the samples.
These concentrations exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) Permissible Limits (PL)
and sources of contamination could be from sources of plants, harvest and transport conditions,
method of preparations, to mention but a few. These products should be governed by standards of
safety, quality, and efficacy that are equivalent to those required for other medicinal products of
international standard.
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Antimalarial, herbal, Heavy metals, WHO, Safety, AAS, Agbo iba , Heavy metals , Disease treatment , Agbo iba , Antimalarial , Herbal , Research Subject Categories::PHARMACY
Citation
Alaribe, C. S., Oladipupo, A. R., Musah, A. A., and Coker, H. A. B. (2019). Investigation of Selected Metallic Impurities in Antimalarial Herbal Decoctions ‘Agbo Iba’ Collected from Four Locations in Lagos State, Nigeria. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333566200