Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Determination of Arsenic Content of Available Traditional Medicines in Malaysia using Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Helal ABM Uddin¹ , Reem S Khalid¹, Umeed A Khan², S A Abbas³

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, International Islamic University (IIUM), Malaysia; ²Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, International Islamic University (IIUM), Malaysia, Jalan Istana, Bandar Indera Mahkota, 25200, Kuantan, Pahang; ³School of Pharmacy, Taylors University, 1, Jalan Taylorâ€™s, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

For correspondence:- Helal Uddin Email: mohdhelal@hotmail.com Tel:+60124076807

Received: 6 October 2012 Accepted: 13 October 2013 Published: 24 December 2013

Citation: Uddin HA, Khalid RS, Khan UA, Abbas SA. Determination of Arsenic Content of Available Traditional Medicines in Malaysia using Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. Trop J Pharm Res 2013; 12(6):1053-1056 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v12i6.28

© 2013 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 content of arsenic (As) in some locally available traditional medicines in the East Coast region of Malaysia.

Methods: The determination of As was conducted using hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometry (HG-AAS). Sample preparation entailed mineral acid digestion using hydrochloric acid and nitric acid mixture in a ratio of 1:3. Sixty samples were collected from different locations including shops and open markets in East Coast region of Malaysia, namely, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan states. Most of these preparations were not registered with Malaysian drug authority.

Results: Out of sixty traditional medicine samples, twenty six contained As in a concentration range of 0.2150 - 1.3254 ppm. As for the rest, they were below the limit of quantification (LOQ).

Conclusion: Traditional medicine samples available in the east coast region of Malaysia contain levels of arsenic that can adversely affect health upon consumption.

Keywords: Traditional medicine, Arsenic, Hydride Generation â€“Atomic Absorption Spectrometer HG-AAS