Lead and cadmium accumulation in medicinal plants collected from environmentally different sites

Though use of herbal medicine is increasing dramatically worldwide, environmental pollution especially with heavy metals poses serious problem on quality of medicinal plants and their products. In Ethiopia, where more than 85% of the population relies on traditional medicine, data on heavy metals level of plants is unavailable. The purpose of this study was to assess Pb and Cd in plants grown in different parts of Ethiopia. Out of 26 samples analyzed, four for lead (15.4%; 11.56 +/- 1.07 to 98.19 +/- 1.05 mg/kg) and seventeen for cadmium (65.4%; 0.38 to 1.83 +/- 0.06 mg/kg) were found to contain concentrations above WHO limits (10 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg respectively).