African Journal of
Pharmacy and Pharmacology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Pharm. Pharmacol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0816
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJPP
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 2279

Short Communication

Determination of mineral and toxic heavy elements in different brands of black tea of Pakistan

Shabir Ahmad1*, Jameel Ahmed Khader2, Syeda Sarah Gilani1, Samia Khan1, Shumaila Noor3, Riaz Ullah1,6, Iqbal Hussain1, Farina Kanwal4 , Hussain Ullah1 and Ziarat Shah5
1Department of Chemistry, Kohat University of Science and Technology Kohat-26000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. 2Arriyadh Community College, King Saud University, Riyadh Saudi Arabia. 3College of Science Research Center, King Saud University,Riyadh Saudi Arabia. 4Medicinal Botanic Center, PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Peshawar - 25100, Pakistan. 5Instituto de Química Universidade Estadual de Campinas Caixa Postal 6154, Campinas, SP 13083-862 Sala D-215, Brazil. 6Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P. O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 13 March 2012
  •  Published: 22 April 2012

Abstract

Camellia sinensis (Tea) has attracted attention of consumers and food manufacturers for its health benefits and physiological effects. Evidences are found that heavy metals are present in tea. Both metallic and non metallic elements are essential for human growth and development within certain permissible limits; harm to humans is expected due to change in this allowable limit. Twelve black tea samples (open and branded) were collected from market and subjected to analysis, using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results showed that black tea available in market is made from leaves collected from different regions (different soil source), and have different capacity for accumulation of heavy metals.

 

Key words: Black tea, heavy metals, flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), toxicity.

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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