Essential Plant Nutrients and Heavy Metals Concentrations of Some Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

In Turkey, the majority of medicinal plants at the selling points are wildly harvested. Therefore, no control exists during their growth and development. The public awareness on effects of environmental pollution in this regard especially with respect to heavy metals in the herbs is increasing. With this objective, medicinal and aromatic plants were collected from herbalists in different, densely populated districts of Izmir Municipality. The concentrations of some essential plant nutrient elements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, and Mo) and toxic heavy metals (Co, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Pb) and Al were measured. Results showed that herbs are rich in the investigated mineral elements; however, some of the heavy metals are found to be at concentrations above the reported critical levels.