Since ancient times, herbal tea is one of the most consumed beverage around the world, after water. Traditional medicinal plants are used to obtain a wide variety of tea types, with beneficial effects on the nutritional and health status of the population. Herbal teas obtained from medicinal plants, depending on the type of plant used for preparation, have multiple therapeutic properties. They can be consumed both in the form of infusions, decoctions and macerated like food or as a natural remedy for many varieties of diseases. The paper describes four common medicinal plants: chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), peppermint (Mentha piperita), hypericum (Hypericum perforatum) and linden (Tilia europea) with their physicochemical and therapeutical properties, the way of preparation and administration, also literature data of some macro and microelements content in some herbal teas and their infusions. The main purpose of this study is to determine the concentration of some essential mineral elements from some herbal infusions used more frequently in the preparation of medicinal teas: mint (Mentha piperita), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), hypericum (Hypericum perforatum) and linden flowers (Tilia europea). The concentrations of six bioelements were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry in the acetylene flame: Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu. The obtained results show that the analyzed tea infusions contain significant amounts of Ca (6.20 - 12.29 mg / 200 ml) and Mg (1.77 - 2.69 mg / 200 ml) and appreciable Fe (32.72 - 52.02 μg / 200ml), Mn (64.07 - 88.12 μg / 200 ml), Zn (16.67 - 93.80 μg / 200 ml) and Cu (8.75 - 21.91 μg / 200 ml). The results obtained for the evaluation the mineral intake of tea infusions, in the conditions of the present experiment, show that the degree of coverage of the daily mineral requirement, corresponding to a daily consumption of 400 ml of tea, shows low values between: 1.20 - 2.46% - for Ca, 0.86 - 1.70% - for Mg, 0.36 - 1.74% - for Fe, 5.57 - 9.79% - for Mn, 0.30 - 2.34% - for Zn and 1.94 - 4.86% - for Cu. Therefore, these teas cannot be considered as additional sources of essential elements.

medicinal plants, herbal infusions, esential element, mineral intake

sciences soil

Presentation: poster