Determination of levels of selected essential elements in the medicinal plants used by Chuka Community, Meru-Kenya using AAS

In this paper, we determine the levels of Zn, Mg and Fe in eight medicinal plants using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) is established. The results show that all the mean concentrations of Fe, Mg and Zn considered as essential elements are significantly different from one sample to another (p≤0.05 at 95% confidence interval). The levels of iron are significantly higher in the leaves and stem of Vernonia lasiopus ranging between 4.77–4.81 ppm as compared to others. The levels of zinc ranged from 0.35–0.37 ppm in the leaves of Eucalyptus saligna to 4.18–4.29 ppm in the leaves of Aloe secundiflora which had the highest concentration. The levels of magnesium were significantly higher in Aloe secundiflora (163.00±1.00 ppm) as compared to others.