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Heavy metal content and health risk assessment of commonly patronized herbal medicinal preparations from the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana

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Abstract

Purpose

To address the question of whether users of herbal products (HPs) are exposed to harmful contaminants, we evaluated six HPs mostly patronized in Kumasi for heavy metal contamination and assessed the health risk associated with their use. This study is one of the first safety evaluation studies on finished multiherbal products in the region.

Method

Three antimalarial, two antidiabetic and one antihypertensive HPs were selected after a mini-survey and coded randomly as HP A-F. The HPs were acid digested for quantitative analysis of heavy metals using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer. Hg quantification was carried out using cold vapour atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Results

The cancer risk estimation values for the carcinogenic metals ranged between 1.54 × 10−9 to 3.73 × 10−4 and were all within acceptable limits. The non-cancer health risk evaluation revealed that, some of the products pose health risk to consumers. The estimated daily intake (EDI) for As in HPF was 2.48 × 10−4 mg/kg/day compared to the reference limit of 1.67 × 10−4 mg/kg/day. HPF also had high hazard index (HI) of 5.70 (HI >1) in children as compared to 1.68 (HI >1) in adults showing a 3.4 folds increase in the health risk among the former.

Conclusion

The six polyherbal products exhibited carcinogenic risk within acceptable limits. Although, the non-carcinogenic risk assessment of products HPA to HPE suggests safety, this can only be ascertained after further characterization of their health risks in detailed chronic toxicity studies. The high HI for product HPF suggests health risk for consumers of this product.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Mr. Isaac Tabiri Henneh and Joseph Acqua-Mills of the Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, and University of Cape Coast, Ghana for their enormous and selfless contributions towards this project.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Frank Adusei-Mensah

  2. School of Public Health, Texila American University, Georgetown, Guyana

    Frank Adusei-Mensah

  3. Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Frank Adusei-Mensah & Jussi Kauhanen

  4. Department of Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    David Kofi Essumang

  5. Department of Chemistry, The University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus, Finland

    Richard Osei Agjei

  6. Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science and Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Carina Tikkanen-Kaukanen

  7. Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Martins Ekor

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  1. Frank Adusei-Mensah
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Correspondence to Martins Ekor.

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Note (N.B)

The manufacturers of the herbal products including HPF have been briefed with the findings from this study. Recommendations were also made to the manufacturers to take steps in preventing metal contamination and ensure good manufacturing practices.

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Adusei-Mensah, F., Essumang, D.K., Agjei, R.O. et al. Heavy metal content and health risk assessment of commonly patronized herbal medicinal preparations from the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana. J Environ Health Sci Engineer 17, 609–618 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-019-00373-y

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