Improved prediction of the bioconcentration factors of organic contaminants from soils into plant/crop roots by related physicochemical parameters

Abstract

There has been an on-going pursuit for relations between the levels of chemicals in plants/crops and the source levels in soil or water in order to address impacts of toxic substances on human health and ecological quality. In this research, we applied the quasi-equilibrium partition model to analyze the relations for nonionic organic contaminants between plant/crop roots and external soil/water media. The model relates the in-situ root concentration factors of chemicals from external water into plant/crop roots (RCF(water)) with the system physicochemical parameters and the chemical quasi-equilibrium states with plant/crop roots (αpt, ≤1). With known RCF(water) values, root lipid contents (flip), and octanol-water Kow’s, the chemical-plant αpt values and their ranges of variation at given flipKow could be calculated. Because of the inherent relation between αpt and flipKow, a highly distinct correlation emerges between log RCF(water) and log flipKow (R2 = 0.825; n = 368), with the supporting data drawn from 19 disparate soil-plant studies covering some 6 orders of magnitude in flipKow and 4 orders of magnitude in RCF(water). This correlation performs far better than any relationship previously developed for predicting the contamination levels of pesticides and toxic organic chemicals in plant/crop roots for assessing risks on food safety.

Uptake, translocation and transformation of three pharmaceuticals in green pea plants

“…The water environment and soils can be also polluted by veterinary pharmaceuticals from animal urine or farm waste (e.g., Charuaud et al, 2019). Pharmaceuticals present in soils can be taken up by plants (e.g., Ahmed et al, 2015;Al-Farsi et al, 2017;Christou et al, 2019;Goldstein et al, 2014;Kodešová et al, 2019a, b;Li et al, 2018Li et al, , 2019aMalchi et al, 2014;Montemurro et al, 2017;Mordechay et al, 2018;Shenker et al, 2011;Winker et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2013). Some of the studies (e.g., Kodešová et al, 2019b;Malchi et al, 2014;Paltiel et al, 2016) indicated a potential human health treat, if contaminated plant tissues (mainly roots and leaves) are consumed.…”

How microbial community composition, sorption and simultaneous application of six pharmaceuticals affect their dissipation in soils

“…The environment can also be polluted by veterinary pharmaceuticals from animal urine or farm waste (e.g., Charuaud et al, 2019). Pharmaceuticals that contaminate soils may subsequently leach to groundwater (e.g., Burri et al, 2019;Godfrey et al, 2007;Fram and Belitz, 2011;Lesser et al, 2018;Li, 2014;Loos et al, 2010) or can be taken up by plants (e.g., Ahmed et al, 2015;Al-Farsi et al, 2017;Christou et al, 2019;Goldstein et al, 2014;Klement et al, 2020;Kodešová et al, 2019aKodešová et al, , 2019bLi et al, 2018Li et al, , 2019aLi et al, , 2019bMalchi et al, 2014;Montemurro et al, 2017;Mordechay et al, 2018;Shenker et al, 2011;Winker et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2013). Further propagation of pharmaceuticals in the environment depends on their sorption and dissipation in the vadose zone (e.g., Carter et al, 2019;Kümmerer, 2009aKümmerer, , 2009bZhi et al, 2019).…”

Plant pharmacology: Insights into in-planta kinetic and dynamic processes of xenobiotics

“…The root concentration factor is a commonly used parameter to measure the entry of a compound in the root (Eggen et al, 2011;Li et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2013). The root concentration factor is the concentration in the root divided by the concentration in the soil solution or nutrient solution for hydroponic studies.…”