Determination of Heavy Metal Concentration in Herbal Medicines by GF-AAS and Automated Mercury Analyzer

This study was conducted to analyze and compare the concentrations of heavy metals in 430 different products of 20 types of herbal medicines available in the domestic market in Korea by Graphite Furnace– Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GF-AAS) and automated mercury analyzer. The accuracy for lead (Pb), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg) was in the range 92.67-102.56%, and the precision was 0.21-6.00 relative standard deviation (RSD%), which was in compliance with the Codex acceptable range. Furthermore, the Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme (FAPAS) quality control (QC) material showed a recovery range of 96.7-102.0% and 0.33-4.93 RSD%. The average contents (µg/kg) of Pb, As, Cd, and Hg in herbal medicines were 254.9 (not detected (N.D.)-2,515.2), 171.0 (N.D.-2,465.2), 99.2 (N.D.-797.1), and 6.0 (N.D.-83.6), respectively. Based on the quantitative analysis results, the heavy metal contents of 20 types of herbal medicines distributed in Korea are within the acceptable range according to the standards issued by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). By using the manufacturer of herbal products as the standard for QC, the Pb, As, Cd, and Hg contents were investigated in the packaging process just before distribution to determine the actual conditions of residual heavy metals in herbal medicines. Thus, these result may contribute to monitoring the QC of herbal medicines distributed in Korea and could provide basic data for supplying safe herbal medicines to the public.