Lead contamination in Eugenia dyeriana herbal preparations from different commercial sources in Malaysia

The Drug Control Authority (DCA) of Malaysia implemented the phase three registration of traditional medicines on 1 January, 1992. A total of 100 products in various pharmaceutical dosage forms of a herbal preparation, containing Eugenia dyeriana, either single or combined preparations (more than one medicinal plant), were analyzed for the presence of lead contamination, using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. These samples were bought from different commercial sources in the Malaysian market, after performing a simple random sampling. Results showed that 22% of the above products failed to comply with the quality requirement for traditional medicines in Malaysia. Although this study showed that 78% of the products fully complied with the quality requirement for traditional medicines in Malaysia pertaining to lead, however, they cannot be assumed safe from lead contamination because of batch-to-batch inconsistency.