Assessment of potential health risk for arsenic and heavy metals in some herbal flowers and their infusions consumed in China.

Herbal tea is consumed widely in China due to their therapeutic efficacy, mild features, and relatively low cost. To assess the health risk associated with drinking herbal tea, arsenic and seven heavy metals, namely Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cd, Ni, and Pb in eight different types of herbal flowers and their infusions were determined by inductively coupled-mass spectrometry after microwave digestion. The accuracy and precision of the analytical method were confirmed by the certified reference material (GBW 07605). The results suggested that significant differences existed in all metal concentrations determined among different varieties of herbal flowers and their infusions. In general, the concentration of iron was higher than those of seven other metals in the investigated herbal flowers and their infusions. The hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were calculated to evaluate the noncarcinogenic health risk from individual metal and combined metals due to the dietary intakes via consumption of herbal infusions. Both the HQ and HI levels were far below one, suggesting that the dietary intakes of the eight metals determined from daily consumption 4.5 g of the investigated herbal flowers for a normal adult should pose no potential risk to human health.

Assessment of heavy metals in some wild edible mushrooms collected from Yunnan Province, China.

Eight heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Pb) in 14 different wild-growing edible mushroom species (Coprinus comatus, Voluariella volvacea, Pleurotus nebrodensis, Hypsizigus marmoreus, Hericium erinaceus, Agrocybe aegerita, Lenfinus edodes, Collybia velutipes, Agaricus bisporus, Russula albida, Clitocybe conglobata, Pleurotus eryngii, Lepista sordida, and Pleurotus ostreatus) collected from Yunnan province, China, were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry after microwave digestion. All element concentrations were determined on a dry weight basis. The ranges of element concentrations for copper, zinc, iron, manganese, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead were 6.8-31.9, 42.9-94.3, 67.5-843, 13.5-113, 0.06-0.58, 10.7-42.7, 0.76-5.1, and 0.67-12.9 mg/kg, respectively. In general, iron content was higher than other metals in all mushroom species. The levels of zinc, cadmium, and lead in some edible mushroom samples were found to be higher than legal limits. The relative standard deviations were found below 10%. The accuracy of procedure was confirmed by certified reference material.