Transfer Factors of Natural Radionuclides from Soil to Medicinal Plants used by Local People in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

Medicinal plants are very useful plants for humans with the various molecules and vitamins they contain. Most of the plants that grow spontaneously in nature were taken into agricultural production practices after their healing properties were discovered. The use of pure active ingredients obtained from plants is quite common. These effective compounds are also used by the pharmaceutical industry in the preparation of modern drug formulations. However, possible high levels of natural radionuclides in medicinal plants, particularly 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, have upraised anxieties regarding radiological risks from plant consumption. In this study, the natural radionuclide activity concentrations of 8 commonly used medicinal plants in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey were determined by gamma spectrometric method using NaI(Tl) detector. Mean transfer factor (TF) values from soil to plant were found to be 0.59, 0.88 and 1.52 for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, respectively.