Genotoxicity of polar fractions from a herbicide‐contaminated soil does not correspond to parent contaminants

Abstract

Fractionation with biological and chemical analysis has been proposed to characterize the risk associated with complex samples. Thus, we have employed hot pressurized water for fractionating a herbicide-contaminated soil. Genotoxicity was found in polar and midpolarity fractions extracted from a historically herbicide-contaminated soil. However, the parent herbicides as well as organic solvent extracts (consisting of herbicides) were not genotoxic. Thus, polar organics formed by natural degradation of herbicides may be responsible for the genotoxic response. For correct assessment of the toxicity of complex matrices such as soils, both contaminated and uncontaminated samples need to be studied for their toxicological impact.

Transformation of the Herbicide Sulcotrione into a Root Growth Enhancer Compound by Sequential Photolysis and Hydrolysis

“…Such a hypothesis can be supported by the presence of microorganisms that were shown to have important roles in allelopathy; they have the potential to modify pollutant effects . It was also observed that genotoxicity of herbicide fractions from soil did not correlate with parent contaminants and organic matter of soil was shown to change triketone features probably as a result of the presence of humic acids …”

“…Such a hypothesis can be supported by the presence of microorganisms that were shown to have important roles in allelopathy; they have the potential to modify pollutant effects. 32 It was also observed that genotoxicity of herbicide fractions from soil did not correlate with parent contaminants 33 and organic matter of soil was shown to change triketone features probably as a result of the presence of humic acids. 34 We have shown that a pesticide, sulcotrione, can be harmful for health and the environment and then transformed by photolysis into a product that was toxic but had lost the specific herbicide toxicity.…”