| Title | Medicinal plants in the district of Epirus (Greece) IV: determination of active iron and some heavy metals contained in the superterrestrial biomass of stinging nettle (Urtica Dioica L.) by visible and atomic absorption spectrometry | |
| Authors | Prodromos B. Issopoulos and Olga Ch. Manouri
Laboratory of Inorganic and Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, GR-45110 Ioannina, Greece |
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| Citation | Issopoulos, P.B., Manouri, O.Ch.: Medicinal plants in the district of Epirus (Greece) IV: determination of active iron and some heavy metals contained in the superterrestrial biomass of stinging nettle (Urtica Dioica L.) by visible and atomic absorption spectrometry, Epitheorese Klin. Farmakol. Farmakokinet. 10(2): 75-83 (1996) | |
| Publication Date | Received for publication: 27 June 1996
Accepted for publication: 10 July 1996 |
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| Full Text Language | English | |
| Order – Buy | pharmakonpress[at]pharmakonpress[.]gr | |
| Keywords | Stinging nettle, active iron, visible and atomic absorption spectrometry, heavy metals. | |
| Other Terms | review article | |
| Summary | The remarkable content of the Stinging Nettle (Urtica Dioica L, STNE) in iron, besides to the equally important quantities of a lot of other pharmacologically active ingredients, such as the ascorbic acid (vitamin C), the phytomenadione (vitamin K1 0.16-0.64 mg%), tannin, abundant chlorophyll (2.1-3.7%), carotenes (20-300 mg/Kg STNE accordingly to the season of the year), folic acid, xanthophyll, histamine, inorganic and organic acids, as well as the probable and at the same time undesirable coexistence of some heavy metals, gave rise to the present experimental work. During this researching endeavour, the interest was focused on two points. First, on the microdetermination of the active iron i.e. of the Fe(II). This form of the iron is the fraction of the total iron, which is very quickly and almost completely absorbed from the human gastrointestinal track, compared with the form of the Fe(III). The microdetermination of Fe(II) was accomplished, first by visible spectrophotometric estimation of the chelate complex of the Fe(II) to be analysed with o-Phenanthroline, formed under the proper conditions (pH 5.0±0.1) and measured at λ=510 nm and after that by atomic absorption spectrometry (Fe-lamp; used line: fuel-oxidant mixture: C2–Η2 ÷ Air 1.25 ÷ 5.25 L/min; 248.3; slit: 0.2 nm; T=2700 °K). The accuracy, the coincidence and the credibility of the results obtained by both the two analytical techniques were considered as very satisfactory. By these analytical ways, was proved that the mean concentration of the active iron in the superterrestrial parts of the biomass of fresh STNE was found to be 2.15 mg/100g (= 0.00215% m/m), irrespective of the species of STNE (small or broad leafed) or the altitude of its origin (mountainous region or in a plain). The second point of the analytical process was the determination of the traces of some undesirable heavy metals such as Cadmium, Chrome, Lead and Nickel, whose the toxicity and the established cancerogenic activity are widely known. Fortunately, the AAS-analysis proves that each one of the above heavy metals examined is found to be in a lesser concentration than the admissible one. Particularly, the concentrations of the heavy, metals analysed in the fresh STNE are measured (in ppm) as follows: Cd: 0.012; Cr: 0.052; Pb: 0.048 and Ni: 0.030. Accordingly to the above exposed results, the consumption of the STNE, derived from the district of Ioannina (Epirus-Hellas), is not entailing any danger induced by the toxicity or the cancerogenicity of these heavy metals, in the end, the presence of the copper was examined in this work, because of its two interesting pharmacological properties: (a) this metal is an essential constituent of a number of aminoxidases and (b) the copper is a probable auxiliary parameter of the haematopoiesis. The mean concentration of the active copper in fresh STNE was found to be 0.169 ppm. | |
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