Herbal medicines will play a major role in the medicines of future. As the inclination towards herbal medicines is increasing, it is desirable that they should be free from any type of contaminants like micro-organisms, heavy metals. Strict limits are prescribed for heavy metals in I.P. & B.P. for allopathic medicines. In contrast there are no limits prescribed for ayurvedic Preparations. As a result, we do not know whether the ayurvedic medicines consumed by population are safe or toxic from the point of view of contamination with heavy metals like lead and arsenic. In the present study analysis of the samples were carried out by Molybdenum Blue Photometric Method (for arsenic) and Dithizone method (for lead) and by Inductive Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission analysis. From the results, it was observed that these heavy metals are present in toxic level in some Ayurvedic raw materials and formulations.
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