Mercury and methylmercury content of agricultural crops grown on soils treated with varius mercury compounds.

Abstract

Beans, cabbage, carrots, millet, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes were grown on silt loam, gravelly loam, and muck soils treated with 1 and 10 ppm of mercuric chloride, methylmercury dicyandiamide (PAN), or phenylmercuric acetate. Appreciable concentrations of methylmercury were present only in PAN-treated soils and in beans, millet and tomatoes grown on those soils. Total mercury was usually less than 0.1 ppm in the edible plant portions, with the highest concentrations occurring most generally when growth occurred on the gravelly loam treated with PAN. Onion bulbs absorbed up to 1.1 ppm of total mercury. The highest concentrations of total mercury in plant stems and leaves were attained in potatoes and tomatoes.