Abstract
Metal contamination of medicinal herbs is of growing concern because of their potential adverse health effects. In this study, metal exposures were estimated and their potential health risks were preliminarily evaluated using available data including metal contamination levels and consumption estimates of herbal medicine in Korea. Consumption and contamination data of 34 medicinal herbs abundantly used in Oriental medicine in Korea were used in this study. Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, and chrome were identified as contaminants of potential health concerns. Even based on a conservative exposure scenario, i.e., consuming 5 times more herbal medicine with 95th percentile contamination levels, health risks associated with herbal medicine consumption were estimated to be minuscule. Herbal consumption was 0.3% of the provisional tolerable daily intake levels recommended by Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of WHO/FAO. However, it should be noted that there are several important assumptions and uncertainties associated with this evaluation: This study was conducted for only 34 types of medicinal herbs of which consumption and metal contamination data were available. In addition, there are no reliable herbal medicine consumption data among Korean population. The pattern and amount of herbal (medicine) consumption in Korea need to be investigated in order to conduct more refined risk assessment associated with metal contamination in medicinal herbs.
