title: Studies on the sources of benzo[a]pyrene in grain and aboveground tissues of rice plants.
abstract: Rice plant pot experiments designed to identify benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) sources in plant tissues were conducted in an air-quality controlled greenhouse built to prevent contamination from B[a]P air pollution. Results from quartz sand cultures with control and 50, 100 and 500 microgkg(-1) of B[a]P treatments were compared with those from outdoor field experiments, in which rice plants were exposed to polluted air in the urban area of Shenyang, China. When B[a]P was strictly controlled in both air and quartz sand culture medium, the background values of B[a]P in rice plant tissues were uniformly very low. There was no significant difference of B[a]P contents of rice grain between control and treatments of B[a]P in controlled air quality trials. This indicated that the source of B[a]P in the rice grains is not from any B[a]P in the root culture media. The B[a]P content of rice grain, husk, and stem with leaf sampled from outdoor field was up to 7.33-, 9.21- and 27.10-fold higher than corresponding tissues from air-quality controlled conditions. This indicated that polluted air is the main source of B[a]P in aboveground tissues. Therefore control of B[a]P pollution in ambient air is of prime importance for improving the quality of cereal crops.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. lipeijun@iae.ac.cn
authors.forename: Peijun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stagnitti
authors.forename: Hairong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shuyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.forename: Junchen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.forename: Xianzhe
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D000388:Air / Q000032:analysis; D001564:Benzo(a)pyrene / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation; D005374:Filtration; D008027:Light; D012275:Oryza / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000737:chemistry; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D001564:Benzo(a)pyrene