Determination and Evaluation of Mineral Constituents of Medicinal Plants used for the Treatment of Asthma and other Ailments by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

Abstract

Mineral contents have been determined for thirty samples from three medicinal plants (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Salvadora oleoides and Euphoria hirta). Fifteen essential trace and toxic elements were determined, using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Ten samples from each plant were collected from the vicinity of Jamshoro and Tandojam Agricultural University and drug stores. The edible parts of all three plants were digested with two known wet asking methods. It was observed that the levels of essential micronutrient Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn and Zn, in all there medicinal plants are found to be (3.491.3-3928.2), (2269.3-3617.3), (3.23-5.42), (6.13-7.33) and (4.22-6.94) mg/100g respectively on dried basis. The efficiency of digesting mineral acid mixtures was checked by certified reference sample of Spinach NBS-1570.

Keywords

• Asthma
• medicinal plants
• Digestion methods
• essential metals
• decoction.