Determination of Heavy Metals and Nutrient Elements in Some Plants Medicinal Used in Eskişehir

In this study, the leaves of sheep sorrel (rumex acetosella l), nettle (urtica dioica l), rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis l.) and walnut (juglansregia l.) that are used as medicinal plant and especially as food were collected from the gardens and their commercial samples were purchased from eskişehir bazaar. the concentrations of some heavy metals (ni, cd, pd, zn, and cr) and essential plant nutrient elements in the collected leaf samples (cu, mn, fe, mg, al, ca, na and k) were determined. inductively couple plasma- optical emission spectrometer (icp-oes) was applied to the prepared leaf samples. cadmium was not detected in any plant materials, besides lead, nickel and chromium were not determined in some of the plant materials. heavy metal contents in all leaves were found in the ranges; 0.53-425 mg/kg for all samples of rosemary, 0.22-46.90 mg/kg for sheep sorrel, 0.59-17.49 mg/kg for walnut samples and 0.85-15.42 mg/kg for nettle samples. the values of plant nutrient elements in all leaf samples were detected as; 2.47-37834.42 mg/kg for rosemary, 2.58-28633.33 mg/kg for sheep sorrel, 6.30-42255.49 mg/kg for nettle and 5.06-16585.00 mg/kg for walnut. according to the results obtained, it showed that whereas medicinal herbs are rich in the investigated plant nutrient elements; some of the heavy metals are found to be at concentrations above the recommended critical levels.