Detection and risk assessments of multi-pesticides in 1771 cultivated herbal medicines by LC/MS-MS and GC/MS-MS
Open accessAbstract
Focus on the safety of herbal medicines has mainly been directed towards the presence of intrinsic toxicity, as found in the cases of renal and hepatic dysfunction caused by aristolochic acids. However, contamination from extrinsic hazards may impart an even greater reduction in their safety and efficacy. This study reveals that pesticides were present in the majority (88%) of a comprehensive cross-section (n = 1771) of herbal medicine samples. Alarmingly, more than half (59%) contained pesticides over the European Pharmacopoeia (EP) limit, and 43% of them contained 35 varieties of banned, extremely toxic pesticides, eight of which were detected at levels over 500 times higher than the default Maximum Residue Limit (MRL). DDTs, carbofuran, and mevinphos were confirmed as being among the most risk-inducing pesticides by three different risk assessment methods, reported to produce carcinogenic, genotoxic, reproductive, and developmental effects, in addition to carrying nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. In light of these findings, and withstanding that extrinsic hazards can be controlled unlike intrinsic toxicity, the authors here strongly recommend the application of herbal medicine quality-control measures and solutions to safeguard against a neglected but certainly potentially serious health risk posed to the majority of the global population that consumes herbal medicines.
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The purity of plants may be compromised by dirt, weeds, bacteria, moulds, and multiple contaminants such as pesticides, toxic metals, and polychlorinated biphenyls.
“The purity of the plants may be compromised due to several factors, namely, by the presence of dirt, weeds, bacteria, moulds, and multiple contaminants (e.g., pesticides, toxic metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), etc) (Jordan et al., 2010;Luo et al., 2021).”
From Multi-target neuroprotective effects of herbal medicines for Alzheimer's disease (2022) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2021
The quality of herbal medicine products is a particular challenge in safety data.
“A particular challenge in safety data on herbal medicines is the quality of the products.”
From Multi-target neuroprotective effects of herbal medicines for Alzheimer's disease (2022) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2021
The presence of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides in medicinal plants is commonly reported in the literature.
“Although the presence of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides in medicinal plants is commonly reported in the literature (Fu et al., 2019;Luo et al., 2021;Xu et al., 2011), in this work it has not been verified.”
From Multi-target neuroprotective effects of herbal medicines for Alzheimer's disease (2022) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2021
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Multi-target neuroprotective effects of herbal medicines for Alzheimer's disease
Fernandes, F., Barroso, M. F., De Simone, A., Emriková, E., Dias-Teixeira, M., Pereira, J. P., Chlebek, J., Fernandes, V. C., Rodrigues, F., Andrisano, V., et al. (2022) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.jep.2022.115107 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
- Authors
- Luo, L., Dong, L., Huang, Q., Ma, S., Fantke, P., Li, J., Jiang, J., Fitzgerald, M., Yang, J., Jia, Z., Zhang, J., Wang, H., Dai, Y., Zhu, G., Xing, Z., Liang, Y., Li, M., Wei, G., Song, J., Wei, J., Peng, C., Zhang, H., Zhang, W., Wang, S., Mizuno, K., Marco, A. A. G., Wu, L., Xu, J., Xiong, C., & Chen, S.
- Affiliations
- China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CN)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- Waters (China) (CN)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- University of Westminster (GB)
- University of Massachusetts Boston (US)
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
- National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (CN)
- Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CN)
- Central South University (CN)
- Suzuka University of Medical Science (JP)
- University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Shilin
- ORCID
- Venue
- Chemosphere
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-01
- Volume
- 262
- Pages
- 127477
- ISSN
- 0045-6535 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3048274245
- Cited by
- 81
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 7.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Chemosphere (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Orbit (Technical University of Denmark, DTU) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie (17-03-C0025)
- International Science and Technology Cooperation Programme (2015DFM30030)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Pesticide Residue Analysis and Safety
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Agricultural safety and regulations
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Analytical Chemistry › Heavy Metals in Plants
- Keywords
- pesticide residues, herbal medicine, herbal medicine safety, banned pesticides, DDT, carbofuran, mevinphos, maximum residue limits, risk assessment, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, herbal medicine quality control
- MeSH terms
- Carbofuran, Chromatography, Gas, Chromatography, Liquid, Drug Contamination, Drugs, Chinese Herbal, Humans, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Pesticide Residues, Pesticides, Risk Assessment, Tandem Mass Spectrometry
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