Title : Neutron Activation Analysis In Determination Of Potentially Toxic Trace Elements In Medicinal Plants - A Review

Medicinal herbs are now widely used as home remedies for a huge number of diseases. Being a non-synthetic drug, they are considered safe for human health. Due to the absorption of metals from the soil through roots, from the air through wet or dry deposits, or from contamination during processing, plant materials may contain high levels of harmful metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, or arsenic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has established maximum concentration limits for these elements to ensure the safe use of herbs. It is therefore important to determine current levels of metals in herbs and herbal parts used for medicinal purposes to identify any potential contamination. These concentrations are in the trace to ultra-trace range. Thus, analytical expertise is required for proper sampling, sample preparation, subsequent measurement with a suitable method, and finally evaluation and interpretation of the data obtained. The presented review summarizes and discusses possible sample preparation methods, as well as application of the reference analytical technique – reactor neutron activation analysis – best suitable for a given analytical task based on the experience of the research in this field at the reactor IBR-2 of FLNP JINR in Dubna, Russian Federation.

Dr. Marina Frontasyeva is a recognized expert in the field of neutron activation analysis applied in Life Sciences and Material Science. Since 1977, she has been working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, and is currently a Director Advisor for Applied Research and Innovation at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international non-governmental organization (http://www.jinr.ru/posts/jinr-employee-among-top-ten-scientists-of-russia/). She is the author and co-author of more than 570 scientific publications and co-author of two patents in the field of nanobiotechnology (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marina_Frontasyeva/research). Her Hirsch index is 47.