Impact of Toxic Heavy Metals and Their Concentration in Zygophyllum Species, Mentha longifolia, and Thymus vulgaris Traditional Medicinal Plants Consumed in Setif-Algeria

Heavy metals (HM) are essential for living cells to maintain their equilibrium. This survey focuses on the problem of medicinal plant contamination due to environmental pollution produced by many different industrial activities and the atmospheric deposition of some toxic compounds. This analysis is important since plants can easily absorb organic and inorganic compounds from all environmental compartments (water, soil, air), which can enter and be transferred in the trophic chain, up to humans. Medicinal plants are relevant for a study about their interactions with different contaminants, in particular those inorganic persistent as HM, because they are used in the entire world for their beneficial properties and represent a significant part of traditional medicine. This review was undertaken to give readers a comprehensive understanding of chemical contaminants, such as HM, which are significant and frequent pollutants of herbal medicines and pose considerable health concerns to the human body. The information was obtained from several sources to figure out the levels of HM in three traditional medicinal plants used in Algeria's Setif region. The gathered data demonstrated that Zygophyllum species, Mentha longifolia, and Thymus vulgaris accumulate higher quantities of HM when cultivated in polluted soil as opposed to unpolluted soil. The data's conclusions imply that these plants contained different hazardous concentrations of HM over the World Health Organization's allowable limits. Rational herb consumption is necessary for a healthy diet. However, the exact mechanisms through which this HM affect human health are not well understood. Keywords: Heavy metal, health risk, polluted soil, Zygophyllum species, Mentha longifolia, Thymus vulgaris.