Mobility of Some High Persistent Organochlorine Compounds from Soil to Mentha Piperita

Abstract

The fate of organochlorine compounds in soil ecosystem is shaped by their physical-chemical properties and by environmental conditions. The high persistence of polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) in soil is given by a slow degradation which varies from months to years (the half-life of PCB 28 is 10.9 years, and PCB 52, 11.2 years). Due to high lipophilicity, these carcinogenic compounds can be easily uptaken by plants and transferred to the food chain. The widespread use of medicinal plant, Mentha Piperita, in pharmaceutical and food industry represents a risk of contamination and pollution. Through laboratory studies, we worked to identify the chemical behavior in soil and plants of some PCB congeners: 28, 52, 138, 153 and 180). The compounds mobility from soil to the roots and then through plant was monitored for 5 weeks. By optimizing the analytical method the contaminants were determined from soil and plant with good recoveries and with reduced limit of detection, below 0.01 mg/kg. It was reported that usually are uptaken into the plant high chlorinated PCBs like PCB 153 and PCB 180 but this study shows that after 5 weeks of PCB application, the concentration of PCB 28, a trichlorobiphenyl, is increasing. Fortunately, calculating the bioconcentration factor (BCF) of the selected PCBs in roots, it was shown that is similar to BCF of other plants like poplar and zucchini. The obtained value of 0.2 is assessed as being low.