Abstract Introduction Natural and artificial radionuclides are the main sources of human radiation exposure. These radionuclides, can enter into the food chain from environment. Radionuclides can affect human health by transferring from soil to plant and entering the human body. In this research determined activities concentrations of radionuclides and calculated average annual committed effective dose due to ingestion for some medicinal and edible plants from Shazand (Markazi Province), Iran Materials and Methods The specific activities of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs in eight medicinal and edible plant species and their surrounding soils were determined using gamma ray spectrometry methods employing high purity germanium (HPGe) detector system. Samples were collected from Shazand zone in Markazi Province, Iran. Results Maximum TF calculated for above radionuclides from soil to plant obtained 0.13, 0.13, 3.17 and 0.09 respectively. Average annual committed effective dose (AACED) for one kg of edible plants varied from 0.63 ± 0.16 to 13.71 ± 0.14 in μSv/y. Annual gonadal effective dose (AGED) for soils samples varied from 556 to 717 with mean value of 642 in µSv/y. The threshold consumption of edible plant obtained in range 21.86 to 82.63 kg/y. Conclusion The AACED due to the ingestion of radionuclides, obtained in this research are lower than the world average as 0.3 mSv/y. Therefore the results of this study indicate that there is no radiological health risk in using these medicinal plants to treat the diseases. All soil samples and some plants were polluted by radio cesium.
