Role of Unprofessional Storage Methods on the Heavy Metal Content of Rosa Damascena (Gole Mohammadi)

Abstract

As majority of people around the world rely on non-conventional medicine mainly of herbal<br />sources for their primary healthcare nowadays, the quality of herbal medicine is one of the<br />most important issues. The products may be contaminated with chemical toxins, excessive<br />pesticides and heavy metals during the growth process with contaminated environment or during<br />harvesting, storing conditions and transferring process to herbal market. Chemical toxins may<br />come from wrong storage conditions or chemical treatment due to transferring to herbal market.<br />The aims of this study were to : determination of the contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Hg, Pb and Zn<br />in Rosa Damascena available in Iranian market in comparison with these heavy metal contents<br />in samples which is harvested from Kashan farms in order to find probable effect of transferring<br />and storing process in contamination issue. The samples were analyzed by a Flame Emission<br />Spectrophotometer and an automated continuous flow hydride vapor generation system was<br />used for mercury. our results showed that the majority of medicinal plants (flowers) samples<br />from markets had higher level of these heavy metals although these contents in samples which<br />harvested from Kashan farms shows lower level of heavy metal contamination. It revealed that<br />probably the transferring process and storing herbal plants are the main factors for contaminating.