## 1 Introduction  
Culinary spices are widely consumed in plenty of cuisines worldwide, as they are associated with the cultural heritage of nations. They are defined/described by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (1995) as dried components or dried plants used to impart flavor, aroma and some of them to add color to foods [1]. The aroma is attributed to the volatile oil constituents present in spices, while the taste that spices impart is due to the oleoresins [2]. Specifically, edible parts of a plant, such as the seeds, bark, buds, roots, berries, and even the stigma of a flower, are obtained and dried to produce a particular spice. Spices can be found in both whole and powder form. Moreover, some dried plants can be blended, resulting in spice mixtures [3, 4]. Besides their culinary use, spices have benefits in human health. Therefore they play an important role in the pharmacological and industrial fields, including the cosmetic and personal care industry [2, 5]. Spices contain various compounds like terpen and retpene derivatives that are important aroma compounds that are known to attract beneficial and repel harmful organisms. Physiological effects of spices have been also reported and now spices are believed to affect various health problems including inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Thus, the use of spices has been currently extended beyond taste and flavor purposes [6]. Undoubtedly, spices as dried edible parts of a plant are rich in metals over a wide range of concentrations. Metals can exhibit either positive or negative impact in human health [7]. Metals like iron, copper and zinc are essential metals since they play an important role in biological systems [8]. Among the essential metals, some of them are micronutrients (e.g., Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, V etc.) and they are needed in very small quantities, while othersare macronutrients (e.g., Ca, Mg etc.) and they are needed in higher amounts. On the other hand, metals like lead and cadmium have toxic roles in biochemical reactions on human body [7]. Metals have a tendency to bioaccumulate in biological organisms. Thus, the consumption of spices with increased concentration of toxic metals could potentially cause an accumulation of these contaminants in human organs [8]. Since spices are world widely consumed in daily diet and in pharmaceutical/cosmetic industry, the assessment of their elemental composition is of high importance for understanding their effect in human health [7]. Different analytical techniques can be employed for the determination of metals. Atomic spectrometric methods based on flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) and plasma-based techniques such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) are typical examples of instrumental techniques that are used for the determination of elemental composition [9]. Among these techniques, ICP-OES is a well-established instrument for the trace analysis, since it offers high sensitivity, extended linear working range and the ability to perform rapid multi-element analysis [10]. Prior to ICP-OES analysis, a sample preparation step is typically required to make the sample compatible with the instrument. Different approaches for sample preparation of foodstuffs (e.g., dry ashing, ultrasound-assisted extraction and wet digestion) can be employed [11; 12]. In the former approach, losses by volatilization and/or retention problems may occur, which can be overcome using wet digestion. Wet digestion is typically performed by the addition of oxidizing agents (e.g., nitric acid, sulfuric acid etc. ), followed by heating. Wet digestion offers many benefits including handling simplicity, flexibility in terms of sample weight, digestion conditions and rapidity [13]. In this work, an ICP-OES method was employed for the determination of 17 metals (Ag, Al, B, Ba, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Tl and Zn) in packaged spices.