Why it is important to study effect of heavy metal in medicinal plants?
Effect on the plant or effect on the person consuming the plant? Be more specific!
It depends on what side you are interested in. Talking of the plant, heavy metals may have toxic effects to the plants as well as inhibition of important physiological activities, so understanding them can help monitoring the botanical phenomena. If by chance they are consumed by users, Engwa et al., (2019) report that in case of long term exposure of the body, heavy metals may lead to muscular, physical and neurological degenerative processes and cancer. So studying them can help avoiding these effects to users. Just a tentative thought Akshatha Banadka
Heavy metals are toxic for both plants and animals. As the extracts of the medicinal plants are being used in the formulation of medicine / herbal products their toxicity profile needs to be checked. The presence of heavy metals may hinder the production of valuable phytochemicals in the plant, the heavy metal can also cause disease in plants. An important factor is, a plant often acts as good bioaccumulator of pollutants. This may lead to toxicity to health rather than benefit effects from phytochemicals. Also, the presence of heavy metals in plants adds an extra purification cost for the industries.
Akshatha Banadka
I am currently developing studies that consider the accumulation of metals in different organs, I use M. oleifera as a biological model, and I share my consideration with you, there are plants that are bioaccumulative, that is, incorporating heavy metals into their tissues does not cause alterations in its physiology, growth or development, so in the study of the accumulation of heavy metals a group of variables and interest for research should be considered, focused on: If you want to validate bioaccumulation with a remedial approach for environments affected by heavy metals , or the cultivation of the plant in environments with a history of contamination by the aforementioned metals, and the destination of the cultivation is to feed man or animals, likewise it must consider that the mere presence of a heavy metal does not mean that it is incorporated into the plant , because it is the valence state of the metal that triggers the toxicity.
Best regards