Phytochemical Properties and Heavy Metal Contents of Commonly Consumed Alcoholic Beverages Flavoured with Herbal Extract in Nigeria

Abstract

15There is proliferation of alcoholic beverages flavoured with herbal-extracts perceived 16 to have medicinal values. Information on the phytochemical and heavy metal 17 contents of these products is scarce. This study assessed the phytochemical

Metal Concentrations in Grape Spirits

“…The concentrations of zinc ranged between 7.638-770.797, 0-128.788 and 0-305.388 μg/L in BC, NWS and PSB, respectively. The observation concurs with other studies in other countries that found only a trace or very low Zn concentrations in alcoholic beverages (Nascimento et al, 1999;Navarro et al, 2007;Iwebgue et al, 2014;Okareh et al, 2018).…”

“…Cobalt concentrations in the spirits evaluated in the study varied from 'not detected' to 0.790 μg/L in BC while no Co was detected in PSB and NWS. Iwegbue et al (2014) observed Co levels ranging from 0 -0.12 μg/mL and similar Co levels have been reported in other alcoholic beverages (Alvarez et al, 2007;Amidzi et al, 2011;Woldemariam and Chandravanshi, 2011;Okareh et al (2018)). Permissible limits of 50 µg/L and 1500 µg/L (higher levels can be related with health problems) have been reported in literature for Co levels (Oladeji and Saeed, 2015).…”

“…The incidences of cadmium contaminations are mostly from industrial activity, air readily taken up by plants, water used for irrigation, smoking and or the presence of cadmium in fertilizers (Liao et al, 2019). Our study findings indicate Cd levels lower than those of a study obtained by Iwegbue et al (2014) who observed mean concentrations of 0.01 to 0.04 μg/mL while Okareh et al (2018) observed Cd levels ranging from 60 to 70 µg/L in distilled alcoholic beverages and liquors in Nigeria.…”

“…Iwegbue et al (2014) observed slightly higher levels of iron in the spirits, which varied from 0.28 to 1.48 μg/mL, similar to studies conducted by Iwegbue, (2010), and Woldemariam and Chandravanshi, (2011) in alcoholic beverages. Camean et al (2001) reported higher Fe levels ranging from 'not detected' to 2.03 μg/mL in Spanish brandy while Okareh et al (2018) observed Fe levels of 720-4 220 µg/L in liquor products commonly consumed in Nigeria.…”

“…Pb levels of 0.02 to 0.24 μg/mL in the alcoholic beverages, while in 2001, Pb concentrations of 0.008-0.313 μg/mL were observed in Spanish brandy by Camean et al (2001). Okareh et al (2018) detected 2 130-4 700 µg/L of lead in commonly consumed alcoholic beverages flavored with herbal extract in Nigeria, which exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) limits of 20 µg/L in water.…”