Influence of Uptake Pathways on the Stereoselective Dissipation of Chiral Neonicotinoid Sulfoxaflor in Greenhouse Vegetables.

Abstract

Stereoselectivity is of vital importance in our environment and needs to be taken into account for comprehensive risk assessment and regulatory decisions of chiral neonicotinoid sulfoxaflor. However, little is known about the dissipation of sulfoxaflor stereoisomers with respect to stereoselectivity in plants under greenhouse cultivation. To bridge the knowledge gap, the current study was initiated to investigate the stereoselective degradation of sulfoxaflor in solar greenhouse cucumber and tomato from foliage and root uptake pathways. The stereoselective dissipation of sulfoxaflor was not statistically different between enantiomer pairs from foliage and root pathways of vegetables (P < 0.05). The persistence of sulfoxaflor stereoisomers was consistently prolonged under the foliage uptake pathway (t1/2, 3.38-14.09 days) compared to the root uptake pathway (t1/2, 2.65-5.07 days) in both vegetable fruits. Nevertheless, the concentrations of (+)-sulfoxaflor A and (-)-sulfoxaflor B were both slightly higher than that of their antipode. The tiny difference should be emphasized because it might be magnified to a significant difference by the high-potential bioaccumulation of sulfoxaflor in the food chain.