the crude drug is sometimes contaminated by some heavy metal as crude drugs are not so well processed.

1. HEAVY METAL
CONTAMINATION IN CRUDE
DRUGS
Surajit Basak
M.Sc. 3rd
semester
Roll No.
PGBOT17020

2. What is Crude Drug?
 Crude drugs are Plant or animal
products that having medicinal property
and contain some highly complex
molecules which are not man made and
are somehow very difficult to synthesize.
 The crude drugs undergoes only few
processes like collection, drying, little bit
of processing and consumption.
Bitter gourd extract
Neem extracts
Maha Sudarshan extract
Rajata Bhasma

3. What are the heavy metals?
 Heavy metals are generally defined as metals with relatively high density (5
g/cm3), atomic weights, or atomic numbers.
 Heavy metals are toxic to human health.
 Heavy metals are largely found in nature as minerals and ore.
 To a small extent they enter our bodies via food, drinking water, air and
herbal medicines.
 Most common heavy metals are lead(Pb), mercury(Hg), cadmium(Cd),
Chromium (Cr) and arsenic(As).
 It is falls under chemical contaminants as per classification of contaminant
and residue in Herbal medicine as per WHO

4. Properties of Heavy metal
 They Occur near the bottom of the periodic table having high density and atomic
number.
 They are toxic in nature generally even in low concentration.
 They are not biodegradable.
 They tend to accumulate in the body specially in case of different forms of mercury.

6. The Major Culprits for heavy metal contamination

7. Some crude drug plants accumulating Heavy
Metals
Crinum_latifolium
(Mahasudarshan)
Equisetum arvenseBitter Gourd
Azadiracta indica
(Neem)

8. Herbal composition
Herbal / Ayurvedic / Crude
product / Dosage For
Therapeutic use Heavy metal contaminations
found
Karela juice or tablet
(Bitter Gourd)
Supports normal sugar level Lead and sometimes Nickel
Maha-Sudarshan Churna
(Crinum latifolium extract)
Used in fever Mercury and lead
Aarogyavardhini Vati
(Neem extract)
Heart disease, Stomach
disease, Antifungal,
antimicrobial and used in tooth
care
Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium,
nickel and Lead
Rajata Bhasma
(Ash of silver)
Diabetes, fever in T.B. Calcined Silver Particles lime
juice
Equisetum crude drug Fluid retention, kidney and
bladder stones, urinary tract
infections, the inability to
control urination, and general
disturbances of the kidney and
bladder.
Gold, lead

9. Common sources of Heavy metals
 Soil
 Water
 Pesticides
 Processing of the drug and appliances used in extraction of crude drug

10. HEAVY METAL TOXICITY CONCERNS
 Prolong exposure to heavy metals may cause adverse health effect and toxicity
due to the capability of heavy metals to bio accumulate and disrupt the functions
of vital organs in the human body such as brain, kidneys and liver.
 Mercury specially in the fish oil taken as health supplement can be dangerous on
regular exposure that affects central nervous system.
 Heavy metals are almost not necessary for body and the regular exposure causes
adverse effect

11. SIDE EFFECT OF HEAVY METALS
Metal Acute Chronic
Arsenic
(As)
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,
encephalopathy, painful neuropathy
cancer: lung, bladder, skin,
encephalopathy
Lead
(Pb)
Nausea, vomiting, encephalopathy
(headache, seizures)
Encephalopathy, anemia, abdominal pain,
nephropathy, foot drop/ wrist-drop
Cadmium
(Cd)
Pneumonitis Proteinuria, lung cancer, osteomalacia
Chromium
(Cr)
GI hemorrhage, hemolysis, acute renal
failure
Pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer
(inhalation)
Mercury
(Hg)
Elemental (inhaled): fever, vomiting,
diarrhea, Inorganic salts (ingestion):
caustic gastroenteritis
Nausea, nephrotic syndrome;
hypersensitivity (Pink disease)
Silver
(Ag)
Hyperpigmentation, Argyra -
Gold
(Au)
Vomiting, dermitis, headache -

12. Affect of heavy metal contamination
Argyra (Silver poisoning)Bioaccumulation of Mercury
Nickel poisoning

13. Classification of contaminant and
residue in Herbal medicine as per WHO
RESIDUE
Class Group Sub-Group Sp. Example Possible source
Chemical
contaminants
Toxic and
hazardous
materials
Toxic metals and
nonmetals
Lead, cadmium,
mercury,
chromium
arsenic
Polluted soil and
water, during
cultivation/
growth,
manufacturing
process
CONTAMINANTS
Class Group Sub-Group Sp. Example
Agrochemical
residues
Pesticides Insecticides Carbamate,
chlorinated
hydrocarbons,
organophosph
oru
Air, soil, water,
during
cultivation/gro
wth, postharvest
processing

14. Limit for Heavy Metal in medicinal
products as per WHO, 2005
Arsenic
(As)
Lead
(Pb)
Cadmium
(Cd)
Chromium
(Cr)
Mercury
(Hg)
Silver
(Ag)
India 3 ppm 10 ppm 0.3 ppm - 1 ppm 1 ppm
China 2 ppm 10 ppm 1 ppm - 0.5 ppm -
Singapore 5 ppm 20 ppm - - 0.5 ppm -
Thailand 4 ppm 10 ppm 0.3 ppm - - 1 ppm
Canada 5 ppm 10 ppm 0.3 ppm 2 ppm 0.2 ppm 1 ppm
COUNTRIES HEAVY METALS

15. Why Need for Heavy Metal Analysis ??.
 To determine the concentration of heavy metal in herbal formulation as per
standard regulatory guidelines.
 To determine the purity of formulation.
 Concern about public health

16. SOME DETECTION METHOD OF HEAVY
METAL CONTAMINATION
Common method
 Limit tests.
 Flame photometry Method
Advanced method
 X-Ray Diffraction Method.
 X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer
Method.
 Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
method.
 Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass
Spectroscopy Method

17. Limit test for heavy metal analysis
 Common Limit test for Heavy Metal
-Using Dilute Acetic acid
 Limit test for Arsenic
-Using Ammonium Oxalate or using chloride mercuric bromide method
 Limit test for Lead
-Using Ammonia cyanide solution or nitric acid
 Limit test for Cadmium
-Using oxalic acid or nitric acid

18. Determination of arsenic
 Arsenic and heavy metals are even in trace amounts but they are dangerous
removed from herbal drugs.
 Amount is estimated by matching the depth of color with of standard stain

19. Coarsely ground material in kjeldahl flask
Add water nitric acid and then sulphuric acid
Material is destroyed
No further darkening with heating
Clear solution with Sulphur trioxide vapors, cool and add ammonium oxalate
Heat with Sulphur trioxide vapors
Cool
Add potassium iodide and granulated zinc; keep for 40 minutes
Compare the stains with standard solution on mercuric bromide paper

20. Standard
 Standard Chloride + Absence of
arsenic + Water
 No stain on mercuric bromide paper
 Standard Chloride + Dilute Arsenic +
Water
 Gives stain on mercuric bromide
paper

21. Limit test for Cadmium and Lead
Material weighed
Add digestion mixture
Heat
Dissolve in nitric acid
Determination of the metal concentration in vapor photometer
Maximum amount should not exceed than 10 mg/kg; cadmium 0.3 mg/kg

22. Standardization of crude drug
 Standardization of drug means confirmation of its identity and
determination of its quality and purity and detection of nature of adulterant
by various parameters like morphological, microscopical, physical,
chemical and biological observations.
 It is needed to ensure the drug is safe to consume or lesser impurity is
there.

23. Some Hoax
 Some commercial products are selling
their products as by saying some
heavy metals are very much needed
for body. For example gold is
considered to be the element for
Strength but the actual truth says
other fact.
 They don’t even mention the actual
presence of that element(In the
nutrition value chart) in the name of
which they selling their product.

24.  According to an article published by
ADAM CAMPBELL-SCHMITT March
15, 2017 in the website about What
Happens When You Eat Gold? Says
the different opinion about gold
consumption that it simply passes out
with excretory products and other
research journals says the more than
intake limit can cause the gold
poisoning.
So the major question arises whom should we
believe The experimentally analysed data or the
Claim of the traditional rule or treading company?

25. Concern About Public Health
 Heavy metal is one of the major health risk towards the public.
 Every year thousands of people are suffering from the heavy metal contamination
in their crude medicine.
 Due to the lack, cost as well as the unavailable the method of analysing the
contaminants in their crude drug they are consuming.
 The collection of crude drug from various area and combining them increases the
risk of heavy metal contamination.
 Although crude medicines are cheap and somehow effective in some cases but
public has to pay more with after effect of the heavy metal not the medicine.

26. Conclusion
 If crude drug is to be consumed the first step is the quality control of the drug for the
contamination and contaminated crude drug should be avoided as per possible.
 The method for analysing the contaminants should be available to public and awareness
of heavy metal poisoning should be given.
 The collection of the crude drug should be from a particular area and the soil also to be
analysed before the crude drug collection.
 Most importantly the drug should not be consumed in crude but should be purified before
consumption to avoid potential health risk.
 Yes, crude drug is cheap and economical for many people but it doesn't mean they should
consume the contaminated product and at last pay more price for it even their life.
 No, I am not against crude drug consumption but its better consuming purified crude drug
or avoiding contaminated drug. Its better to be safe than sorry.

27. References
 https://www.foodandwine.com/news/is-gold-safe-to-eat
 https://www.dovemed.com/diseases-conditions/gold-toxicity
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crude_drug
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21913125
 https://www.slideshare.net/akshaykakde1/heavy-metal-analysis-in-herbal-
formulation-by-akshay-kakde
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4144270/
 https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-heavy-metal-605190
 https://ptable.com

28. THANK YOU