Assessing phytoremediation potentials of selected tropical plants for acrylamide

Abstract

Purpose Environmentally hazardous and health risk substances in animals and humans in the environment have increased as a result of continuing anthropogenic activities. Examples of these activities are food processing, laboratory, food production, industrial, and other relative activities that use various forms of acrylamide. All acrylamide in the environment are manmade. It is the building block for the polymer, polyacrylamide, which is considered to be a nontoxic additive. However, if the polymerization process is not perfect and complete, the polyacrylamide may still contain acrylamide which is toxic and may pose risks and hazards to the environment. Another form of acrylamide that may pose danger as well in the environment is the acrylamide monomer, which is also a very toxic organic substance that could affect the central nervous system of humans and is likely to be carcinogenic. Phytoremediation could be a tool to somehow absorb this neurotoxic agent and lessen the contamination in the soil. This technology could lessen the soil and water contamination by acrylamide thereby limiting the exposure of animals and humans. This study may also help solve the problem of disposing contaminated acrylamide waste materials. This study was conducted to achieve the following objectives: (1) to evaluate phytoremediation potentials of some selected tropical plants in acrylamide-contaminated soil, (2) to compare the performance of tropical plants in absorbing acrylamide through accumulation in their roots and shoots, and (3) to determine the outcome of acrylamide in the soil after treatment using the test plants with phytoremediation potentials. Materials and methods Soil was collected from 40 sampling points (2,000 g of soil per sampling points) in a halfhectare rice field in the Philippine Rice Research Institute, Central Experiment Station, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. This study used Mustard (Brassica juncea L.), petchay (Brassica chinensis L.), vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides L.), hog weeds (Portulaca oleracea L.), snake plant (Sanseviera trifasciata Prain), and common sword fern (Nephrolepsis cordifolia L.). These plants were selected to determine their capability of removing acrylamide residues from soil with unstable polyacrylamide gel. Analysis of acrylamide concentrations in soil and plant parts were done using a gas chromatograph equipped with flame ionization detector at the Training, Research and Development, Adamson University, Manila. This study was laid out using the completely randomized design with three replications. Data were analyzed with a one-way ANOVA using PROC GLM. Duncan's multiple range test (p≤0.05) was followed for the mean treatment separation and comparison.Results and discussion Among the plants tested, the highest concentration of acrylamide was absorbed by the whole plant of mustard (6,512.8 mg kg −1 ) compared with pechay (3,482.7 mg kg -1 ), fern (2,015.4 mg kg -1 ), hogweeds Responsible editor:(1,805.3 mg kg -1 ), vetiver grass (1,385.4 mg kg -1 ), and snake pl...

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