Insights into the Uptake Processes of Wastewater-Borne Pharmaceuticals by Vegetables

An increasing number of reports on plant uptake of pharmaceutical compounds (PCs) have been recently published, raising concerns of human exposure through dietary intake. In this study, PC uptake and translocation were evaluated in cucumber and tomato plants to elucidate the effects of PC physicoche...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2014-05, Vol.48 (10), p.5593-5600
Main Authors: Goldstein, Myah, Shenker, Moshe, Chefetz, Benny
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
Applied sciences
Aquatic plants
Biological and medical sciences
Biological and physicochemical properties of pollutants. Interaction in the soil
Cucumis sativus
Cucumis sativus - growth & development
Cucumis sativus - metabolism
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Environment
Exact sciences and technology
Fruit - metabolism
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General agronomy. Plant production
Human exposure
Humans
Ions
Irrigation
Lycopersicon esculentum
Lycopersicon esculentum - growth & development
Lycopersicon esculentum - metabolism
Other nutrients. Amendments. Solid and liquid wastes. Sludges and slurries
Pharmaceutical Preparations - metabolism
Pharmaceuticals
Plant Leaves - metabolism
Pollution
Pollution, environment geology
Soil - chemistry
Soil and sediments pollution
Soil-plant relationships. Soil fertility. Fertilization. Amendments
Vegetables
Vegetables - metabolism
Waste Water - chemistry
Wastewaters reuse. Miscellaneous
Water Pollutants, Chemical - metabolism
Water quality
Water treatment
Water treatment and pollution
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:An increasing number of reports on plant uptake of pharmaceutical compounds (PCs) have been recently published, raising concerns of human exposure through dietary intake. In this study, PC uptake and translocation were evaluated in cucumber and tomato plants to elucidate the effects of PC physicochemical properties, soil type, and irrigation-water quality. Nonionic PCs were taken up and accumulated at higher levels in plants grown in soils of lower organic matter and clay content. While the concentration of most PCs in cucumber and tomato leaves were of similar order, their concentrations in the tomato fruit were much lower than in the cucumber fruit. This is related to differences in fruit physiology. Our data suggest that irrigation with treated wastewater reduces the bioavailability of acidic PCs for uptake by cucumber plants as compared to fresh water irrigation. This study sheds light on factors affecting the uptake of PCs by crops irrigated with treated wastewater, the governing role of PCs’ physicochemical properties along with the physiological nature of the plant, soil properties and water quality that together determine uptake, translocation, and accumulation within plant organs. Occurrence of metabolites in plant suggests that PC metabolism has to be evaluated to reveal the total uptake.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es5008615