Heavy Metal and Health Risk Assessment of Paragis

(Eleusine indica) Grass Concoction from Different Parts of

Laguna Near the Laguna Lake Shore Line
Mariero H. Gawat a *, Danielle Theo L. Martinez a
a
College of Food Nutrition and Dietetics, Laguna State Polytechnic University

* Corresponding author: Mariero H. Gawat

ABSTRACT
Paragis (Eleusine indica) grass is in the Philippines has become popular as herbal medicine, claimed
to cure several medical conditions when processed and consumed as a concoction. In this study,
concentration of three heavy metals namely, Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), and Chromium (Cr) in Par-
agis grass concoction from the three towns (Los Baños, Bay, and Calamba) along Laguna Lake
were determined. The health-risk effects, specifically non-carcinogenic, due to the exposure of the
three heavy metal studied for adult consumers were estimated. Heavy metal analysis were carried
out through Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). Results show that the highest con-
centrations of Pb, Cd, and Cr were found to be from the samples gathered in Bay, Laguna. Also, for
the Estimated Daily Intake of Pb, Cd, and Cr, Paragis grass concoction from Bay, Laguna exceeds
the maximum permissible limit set by Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO). For the non-car-
cinogenic risks associated with the consumption of the samples, estimated Target Hazard Quotient
(THQ) for the three samples, for Pb, Cd and Cr did not exceed the limit (THQ>1). In the estimation of
the the potential health risk posed by more than one metal, the computed Hazard Index (HI) is less
than one, thus no adverse health effects are expected because of exposure for Pb. Cd and Cr, and
the risk of the person getting a disease from exposure to the sample is low.

Keywords: herbal drink, hazard index, THQ

INTRODUCTION content.

Paragis (Eleusine indica) grass is also known
as goose grass, is ubiquitously distributed
throughout the archipelago, and native in the
tropics (Haber and Semaan, 2007). This plant
has become popular in the Philippines because
of its medicinal claims. The plant is used as a
remedy for kidney problems and is used for the
treatment for hypertension; influenza etc (Coo-
per, 2004; Lans, 2006; Leach et al. 1995). All
parts of the plant are required to be boiled to
get its medicinal effect. However, there are no
studies conducted for the safety of drinking Par-
agis concoction, specifically for its heavy metal
Heavy metals are found naturally on earth and
plays vital role for several life processes; how-
ever, they can be toxic if taken in excess and
can bind to and affect vital functions of cellular
components. Among the common heavy met-
als, Chromium, Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury,
and Lead are potentially very harmful when
taken extensively (Baird and Cann 2012; Singh
et al. 2010). For this study, the heavy metals
determined were Pb, Ch and Cd, considering
their high potential in imparting harmful effects
to human. Furthermore, non-carcinogenic risks
associated with the exposure of these heavy

22 January - December 2019

metals and estimation of its potential health risk
when consuming paragis concoction were de-
termined. Emphasis on choosing Laguna lake
as the site of the study is stressed accordingly
because Laguna lake is the largest Lake in the
Philippines, known to be heavily contaminat-
ed due to its strategic location of being at the
center of industrial hub in the country (Molina,
2011). Moreover, the area is considered as the
“industrial contamination hotspot” by Green-
peace (2011). Thus, determining the heavy met-
al content of paragis concoction along the areas
of Laguna lake will shed some light to the
impact of the lake’s environmental condition to
health. Furthermore, this study provides useful
information about the possible risks in taking in
paragis grass as a medical remedy.
METHODOLOGY
Sample Gathering
Paragis grass samples were gathered in three
towns namely; Calamba, Bay and Los Baños,
located on the south bay area in Laguna Lake.
In each town, three representative Barangays
were chosen as the sampling site. For Bay,
Barangay Santo Domingo, San Antonio, and
Tagumpay. For Calamba, Barangay Lingga,
Pansol, and Masiit and lastly, for Los Baños,
Barangay Baybayin, Malinta, and Bayog. Grass
samples were collected 10 meters away from
the shoreline.
Sample preparation
The collected grass samples were thoroughly
washed using distilled water and were air dried
for 20 min to remove excess water. In homog-
enizing the samples, equal proportions of grass
from the three barangays for one site were
mixed to represent one sampling site for Bay,
Calamba and Los Baños respectively. In prepar-
ing the concoction, 20 g of paragis grass was
added with one L of water and was boiled for
15 min. After boiling, the concoction was cooled
down and filtered and the resulting filtrate was
Issue No. 8
transferred to a clean bottle.
Heavy Metal Analysis
The total heavy metal contents were determined
by digesting one mL of paragis concoction fil-
trate in a 12 mL mixture of concentrated Nitric
acid and Perchloric acid (3:1 v/v). All the diges-
tion procedure was adopted from the methods
of Garba et al. (2015). Heavy metal analysis
was done Using AAS (SPECTR AA 55B), using
standards for Cd, Ch and Pb.
Health Risk Assessment (Non-Carcinogenic
Health Effects)
The estimated daily intake was calculated using
the formula: EDI= (MC x IR/BW). The IR is the
ingestion rate, based on the ingestion rate of tea
in the Philippines is 0.027 kg or 27 g (Statista,
2016); the MC is the Metal Concentration of the
heavy metals (Pb, Cd, and Cr) and BW is the
Body Weight of an average human; 60.5 kg for
males and 52.2 kg for females (Philippine Di-
etary Reference Intake, 2015).
Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) of the Paragis
concoction was determined using the formula
by (Zhuang et al, 2013).
[THQ= [(EFr x ED x IR x MC) / (RfDo x BW x
AT)] x 10-3],
Exposure Frequency (EFr) is the number of
days in a year for an average consumer, which
is set to be 365 days/year; Exposure Duration
(ED) is the life span of an average Filipino (68
years). Ingestion Rate (IR) of tea in the Philip-
pines is 27 g (The Statistics Portal); Metal Con-
centration (MC) of Pb, Cd, and Cr in samples
(mg/L); Oral reference dose (RfDo). For the
reference doses, the following were used: 0.2
mg/kg day for Pb, 0.005 mg/kg day for Cd and
0.009 mg/kg day for Cr (Sakar et al 2016). The
average Body Weight (BW) for females is 52.5
kg and 60.5 kg for 25 males (Philippine Dietary
Reference Intake, 2015). The average time for
Noncarcinogenic risk considered is 30 years or
23
10,590 days.
Health Risk (HI) is the sum of every Target Haz-
ard Quotient for every heavy metal (USEPA,
2011). This was used to determine the potential
health risk when considering the exposure to
more than one heavy metal.
Statistical Analysis
All the values reported were the calculated aver-
age value and standard error for triplicate anal-
yses performed. All data were analyzed with
the SPSS software, version 17.0 (SPSS Inc.,
Chicago, USA). Statistical significance was de-
termined by variance analysis (ANOVA). Values
found to be significantly different were subject-
ed to post-hoc analysis using Tukey’s honestly
significant difference (HSD) test to compare and
separate the means, and significance was ac-
cepted at the 5% level (P<0.05).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Heavy Metal Concentration
The concentrations of heavy metals from par-
agis concoction samples collected from three
towns located in the South bay area of Laguna
Lake are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Levels of Heavy Metal
Heavy metal Concentration (mg/L)
Sample
Source Pb Cd Cr
Bay 1.605±.01a 0.309±0.02a 0.065±0.00a
Calamba 0.340±0.02b 0.086±0.01b 0.062±0.01a
Los Baños 0.313±0.02b 0.089±.001b 0.033±0.01b
*values with the same letter across a column are not signifi-
cantly different from each other (p≤0.05)
Table 1 shows that for Cd, samples from Los
Baños and Calamba show no significant dif-
ference and did not exceed the recommended
limit set by WHO which is 0.10 μg/g (Food and
Agriculture Org., 2001), However, samples col-
24
lected from Bay got a significantly higher Cd
concentration of 0.309 mg/mL. Also, for the con-
centration of Pb, samples from bay had a signifi-
cantly higher value (1.605 mg/mL), compared to
the concentrations of Pb from Calamba and Los
Baños. All concentrations of Pb from the three
sampling areas exceeded the allowable limit set
by WHO which is 0.3 μg/g (FAO 2002), thus this
implies an issue of concern in the consumption
of the studied samples. When it comes to Cr,
results show that samples from Calamba and
Bay exceeded the allowable limit which is 0.05
(FAO,2002).
Interestingly, based on the results discussed,
samples from Bay exceeded the recommended
limit for the three heavy metals studied com-
pared to its neighboring towns. The results can
be attributed to the geographical location of Bay,
Laguna, where it is identified as an area with
high flood retention service (the capacity of the
lake to store water) along Laguna lake (Faraon
et al. 2016). Furthermore, bigger areas in Bay,
Laguna are prone to flooding due to more flood
plains along the its lakeshore area (Ardales,
2015). Flooding in these areas causes high
depositions of minerals such as heavy metal
contaminants of anthropogenic nature from the
contributing nearby industrial areas. Human
Health Risk Assessment
The Estimated Dietary Intake (EDI) of metals,
a common index for the transfer of heavy metal
transfer from plant to humans were computed
based on rate of tea consumption in the Philip-
pines are shown in Table 2, while Table 3 pre-
sented information on the total hazard quotient
(THQ) and hazard index (HI) of metals from
consumption of paragis concoction. Computed
concentration of heavy metals from the parag-
is concoction samples were used for the EDI,
THQ and HI computation. At present, there are
relatively no values for the ingestion rate of par-
agis concoction, thus ingestion rate used for the
computations was for tea consumption in the
Philippines.
January - December 2019
Table 2. Estimated Daily Intake

(EDI mg/k glow)

Sample Source Lead Cadmium Chromium
Male Female Male Female Male Female
Bay 0.71 b 0.83 b 0.14 b 0.16 b 0.03 a 0.03 a
Calamba 0.08 a 0.09 a 0.04 a 0.04 a 0.01 a 0.02 a
Los Baños 0.19 a 0.22 a 0.04 a 0.05 a 0.02 a 0.02 a
Maximum Permissible Limit (MPL) 10mg/kgbw 0.3mg/kgbw 1.3mg/kgbw

*values with the same letter across a column are not significantly different from each other (p≤0.05)

Table 2 shows the computed EDI for each heavy
metal. For Pb and Cd, EDI for samples collected
from Bay were significantly higher for male and
female, than in samples collected from Calam-
ba and Los Baños. The result was expected
due to the significantly higher concentration of
Pb and Cd from the samples from Bay. On the
other hand, for the Cr, there were no significant
differences in EDI values from different sam-
pling areas. The computed EDI for the samples
shows that all paragis concoction from the three
areas had an EDI value not exceeding the MPL
for Pb, Cd and Cr set by WHO, this signifies that
for the studied paragis concoction, its consump-
tion does not indicate potential health risks to
consumers.

Table 3. Total Hazard Quotient

THQ
Lead Cadmium Chromium HI
Sample M F Ave M F Ave M F Ave M F Ave
Source

Los Baños 0.02 0.03 0.025 0.004 0.005 0.0045 0.001 0.002 0.001 0.105 0.037 0.071
Bay 0.08 0.09 0.085 0.015 0.018 0.0165 0.003 0.003 0.003 0.098 0.111 0.1045
Calamba 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.004 0.005 0.0045 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.016 0.017 0.0165

M-Male F-Female HI-Hazard Intake

Using the THQ guidelines set by USEPA (2011),
the computed THQ for the individual heavy met-
als in the paragis concoction studied were all
below the limit (<1). Correspondingly, the effect
of the consumption of more than 1 heavy metal
(Pb, Cd and Cr) expressed as HI value for the
three metals were all less than one.
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The results of the study reveal that for the giv-
en heavy metal concentration from the different
sampling sites, paragis concoction from the
different parts of Laguna lake showed no pos-
sible health risk based on the computed THQ.
Thus, there is no significant health implications
to the exposed population during a given life-
time (USEPA, 2011). Currently, the result adds
up to the health risk studies conducted for the
consumption of tea and infusions, having the
same result of no potential health risk (Zhang
et al, 2018; Patrick-Iwuanyanwu and Udowelle,
2017). It is recommended that further study on
concentrations of heavy metal based on the ma-
turity of paragis grass be conducted for bever-
age preparations

Issue No. 8 25
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