Shchukin et al. 2022 - Elemental impurities in mint products
This Russian study measured elemental impurities in peppermint leaves and peppermint-based teas, supplements, oils, and tinctures. It is useful for herbal-infusion and botanical-supplement context because it distinguishes less-processed dry products from deeply processed oils and tinctures.
Key numbers
- Dry peppermint leaves contained Al 75-523 mg/kg, V 0.54-1.04 mg/kg, Cr 1.01-2.02 mg/kg, Mn 16.5-58.7 mg/kg, and Fe 132-406 mg/kg.
- Dry peppermint teas and supplements contained Al 281-4258 mg/kg, V 0.75-9.25 mg/kg, Cr 1.25-9.52 mg/kg, Mn 61.4-115 mg/kg, and Fe 291-3119 mg/kg.
- Deeply processed oils and tincture had lower ranges than leaves for several elements: Al 0.25-0.75 mg/kg, Cr 0.75-1.56 mg/kg, Ni 0.00-1.75 mg/kg, Cu 0.54-1.25 mg/kg, Zn 0.75-13.3 mg/kg, Sr 0.13-0.31 mg/kg, and Ba 0.08-0.16 mg/kg.
- The comparison leaf ranges for those same elements were Al 75-523 mg/kg, Cr 1.01-2.02 mg/kg, Ni 0.25-6.56 mg/kg, Cu 0.00-7.28 mg/kg, Zn 13.8-42.8 mg/kg, Sr 35.8-82.4 mg/kg, and Ba 0.00-30.9 mg/kg.
- The authors state that arsenic exceeded Russian pharmacopoeia/SanPiN norms in some herbal preparations and supplements, while teas did not exceed the 1.0 mg/kg tea standard.
Methods
The study covers peppermint raw herb and processed peppermint products. It reports product-form ranges rather than a single pooled mint value, which matters for routing between herbal teas, supplements, oils, and tinctures.
Implications
The source supports herbal-infusion and botanical-supplement evidence gaps, especially for aluminum, chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, and arsenic context in peppermint products. It should preserve product form because dry teas/supplements and oils/tinctures show very different concentrations.
Wiki pages this source may touch
- tea
- herbal-botanical-infusions
- supplements-botanicals-herbs
- supplements-oral-liquids-tinctures
- arsenic-total
- chromium
- nickel
- aluminum
Verification notes
The PDF is primarily Russian. Exact arsenic values were not transcribed from the table because the text extraction preserved the comparison statement more reliably than the individual As row layout; the page therefore routes the numeric ranges that were clearly extractable and keeps the As exceedance as source-stated qualitative context.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.