?Mineral Contents in the Infusions of two Species of South American Mistletoes?

GIMENEZ.M.; PELLERANO, R.; DELFINO, M.; MARCHEVSKY, E.

Mendoza

Congreso; XXXI Reunión Anual Sociedad Biologia de Cuyo,; 2013

SOCIEDAD DE BIOLOGIA DE CUYO

?Mineral Contents in the Infusions of two Species of South American Mistletoes?; Giménez M., Pellerano R., Delfino, M., Marchevsky E.; XXXI Reunión Anual Sociedad Biologia de Cuyo, Noviembre 2013, Mendoza. Ligaria cuneifolia (Ruiz & Pav.) Tiegh. (liga roja) andTripodanthus flagellaris (Cham. & Schlecht.) Tiegh. (liga blanca) ?Loranthaceae? is hemiparasitic plants. The herbal infusions (teas) of these species are widely used in Argentinean folk medicine because of its cardiovascular effects (antihypertensive). For this reason, accessibility studies seem to be interesting as the total elemental concentration in herbs and infusions would be helpful for obtaining a realistic picture of the human intake of these elements. The concentrations of As and heavy metal elements such as Cr, Cd and Pb, as well as essential elements in fifteen samples of medicinal herb, prepared as infusion, were determined by using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The samples were digested with concentrated nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a microwave system. This study showed the total content of arsenic and heavy metals in herbs was 14.02 and 11.15 mg Kg-1, respectively and very low percentage of arsenic and heavy metals released into hot water indicating low contamination. The hazard index (HI) of daily tea drinking of Ligaria cuneifolia and Tripodanthus flagelaris was low and within the bounds of safety (