Heavy Metal Contents of St. John's Wort (Hypericumperforatum L.) Growing in Northern Turkey

Abstract

Hypericum perforatum L. plants representing a total of 35 wild populations were collected from Black Sea region of Turkey at flowering stage and subsequently assayed for some heavy metal contents, namely Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn and Pb. The results of chemical analysis of plant samples revealed that total individual plant contents in these wild populations were 1.81-10.09 pg Cug-1 mean:6.34), 197.88-9.10 pg Mng-1 (mean:39.26), 2990.21-54.16 pg Fe g-1 (mean:434.34), 181.60-12.91 pg Zn g-1 (mean:68.31) and 124.76-12.04 pg Pb g-1 (mean:47.51), respectively. According to the results of variance analysis, heavy metal contents of H. perforatum plants varied with sites to a large scale and this variation was found to be significant statistically. © 2010 Academic Journals Inc.