Bioaccessibility of lead and arsenic in traditional Indian medicines.

ABSTRACT: Arsenic and lead have been found in a number of traditional Ayurvedic medicines, and the practice of Rasa Shastra (combining herbs with metals, minerals and gems), or plant ingredients that contain these elements, may be possible sources. To obtain an estimate of arsenic and lead solubility in the human gastrointestinal tract, bioaccessibility of the two elements was measured in 42 medicines, using a physiologically-based extraction test. The test consisted of a gastric phase at pH 1.8 containing organic acids, pepsin and salt, followed by an intestinal phase, at pH 7 and containing bile and pancreatin. Arsenic speciation was measured in a subset of samples that had sufficiently high arsenic concentrations for the X-ray absorption near edge structure analysis used. Bioaccessible lead was f

SUBMITTER: Koch I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3224858 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature