Analysis of heavy metal pollution in Rhizoma Coptidis and its health risk assessment
[Objective]The study aimed to investigate the present situation of heavy metals in 5-year-old Rhizoma Coptidis in different production areas and assess its risk for health,laying a theoretical basis for precise control of heavy metal pollution in different areas.[Method]The Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry(ICP-OES)was used to determine the contents of Cu,Cd,Pb,As and Hg in the root tissues of 39 5-year-old Rhizoma Coptidis from different regions.Health risk assessment was performed by using the maximum estimated daily intake(EDI),target hazard quotients(THQ)and carcinogenic risks(CR)assessment models.[Result]The average contents of Cu,Pb,Cd,As and Hg in the samples were 20.77,3.27,0.53,0.14 and 0.002 mg/kg,respectively.According to the guidance of the consistency limit of heavy metals and harmful elements provided by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2020 edition),the content of Pb in 7 of the 39 samples exceeded the standard,with an exceeding rate of 17.95%,which were samples from Kaizhou,Meishan,Beichuan,Emei and Pengzhou.There were 19 samples in which the Cu content ex-ceeded the standard,with an exceeding rate of 48.17%,which were sampled from Lichuan,Shizhu,Meis-han,Beichuan,Emei and Pengzhou.The contents of Cd,As and Hg were within the specified range in all samples.The results of health risk assessment showed that the EDI values of the five heavy metal contents in Rhizoma Coptidis for adults and children were less than PTDI,the THQ values were less than 1,and the CQ values were less than 10-6,indicating that there was no significant impact on human body health.[Conclusion]Combined with the assessment on current situation of heavy metal pollution in Rhizoma Cop-tidis in different production areas,the targeted control of heavy metal pollution could reduce source pollu-tion and ensure the safety of clinical medication of Rhizoma Coptidis.