Evaluation of Heavy Metals in Selected Medicinal Plants and their Corresponding Soils collected from Environmentally Diverse Locations of India

The study aimed to determine the metal accumulation levels of Centella asiatica and Bacopa monneri from environmentally diverse regions in India. Accumulation of heavy metals in human tissues through intake of herbal preparations can cause serious impact on the health of the human beings. Bacopa monneri and Centella asiatica have been used traditionally as folk medicines. Therefore, metal accumulation of seven heavy metals (Mn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cd, Fe and Zn) was taken up in composite (leaf, roots and stem) samples of two medicinal herbs (Centella asiatica and Bacopa monnieri) collected from diverse locations of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam. Background concentrations of heavy metals in soils are important due to their pollution potential and toxic effect of these metals on health aspects of human beings and the environment. Therefore, investigation of heavy metals in the soil in which the medicinal plants were cultivated was taken up in order to ascertain the contamination status.