An Insight into Toxic Metal in Herbal Medicine

Abstract

Herbal medicines are becoming increasingly popular, thereby being used in a vast amount. Prime reasons for this ample amount of popularity are clever marketing techniques fed on perceived safety. However, without proven clinical trial these claims come undone. This poses a threat to public health and drug safety as well. As a result, the whole health system falls into peril. With the increasing of urbanization and industrialization for ensuring development, geologic and anthropogenic activities have increased which is polluting soils with toxic metals. Consequently, contamination in herbal plants and their finished formulations due to toxic metal is not rare and being reported in different articles. However, the mechanism behind the metal availability in herbal medicine and their mother plant and the consequence in terms of mechanism and different mathematically understanding is little discussed. Therefore, in this review, efforts have been given on obtainability of toxic metal in herbal medicine from the point of source as back as how the herbs may have been exposed to toxic metals and subsequent mitigation of toxic metals and the factors governing behind the up-taking. Human health risk assessment is explained for assessing the potential risk of exposure