Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Analysis of Metal Content of Samples of Gloriosa Superba L (Colchicaceae) Collected from Two Different Locations in Pakistan

Haroon Khan^1,2 , Murad Ali Khan³, Shafiq Ahmad Tariq⁴, Muhammad Saeed², Naveed Muhammad², Farah Gul^2,5, Humaira Inayat⁵

¹Gandhara College of Pharmacy, Gandhara University; ²Department of Pharmacy, University of Peshawar, Peshawar; ³Department of Chemistry Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat; ⁴Department of Pharmacology, Khyber Medical University; ⁵Medicinal Botanic Center, PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Haroon Khan Email: hkdr2006@gmail.com

Received: 27 October 2011 Accepted: 5 June 2012 Published: 16 August 2012

Citation: Khan H, Khan MA, Tariq SA, Saeed M, Muhammad N, Gul F, et al. Analysis of Metal Content of Samples of Gloriosa Superba L (Colchicaceae) Collected from Two Different Locations in Pakistan. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(4):631-636 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i4.14

© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the metallic content of different parts of Gloriosa superba collected from two different locations in Pakistan, and also to assess their nutritious values and toxic levels.

Methods: The plant material and soil were collected from two different locations - polluted and unpolluted. Wet digestion method was used for the preparation of samples (whole plant and soil) followed by analysis using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (for micronutrients) and flame photometry (for macronutrients).

Results: Of the detected micronutrients, high concentrations of Zn, Fe and Mn were noted for samples collected from both areas. These values were within permissible limits. Samples collected from the polluted area contained Cu (7.5 – 13.0 ppm), Cr (1.4 − 1.9 ppm) and Ni (0.3 − 2.0 ppm), all of which exceeded acceptable limits; the same nutrients were mostly within acceptable limits for samples collected from the unpolluted area. Significant presence of macronutrients - Ca, Na and K - were observed in samples obtained from both areas.

Conclusion: Proper validation of medicinal plants used for therapeutic purposes should be mandatory on safety grounds to protect consumers from contaminants.

Keywords: Gloriosa superba, Micronutrients, Macronutrients, Toxicity, Metal ions, Medicinal plants