Effect of soil mercury pollution on ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe): Growth, product quality, health risks and silicon mitigation.

Effect of soil mercury pollution on ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe): Growth, product quality, health risks and silicon mitigation. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2020 Mar 18;195:110472 Authors: Xu J, Zhang J, Lv Y, Xu K, Lu S, Liu X, Yang Y Abstract The mercury residue in soil not only poisons plants, but also bioaccumulates and biomagnifies through the food chain, causing a significant risk to human health. As an essential condiment on the table, the food safety of ginger should be focused on. Using soil culture experiments, this study aimed to identify the response of ginger growth to mercury pollution, assess the transmission and residue of mercury in different product organs and explore the mitigation mechanism of silicon on mercury toxicity. Effects of soil mercury pollution on ginger growth showed hormesis and time effect. Long-term mercury pollution led to growth inhibition and quality degradation of ginger, eventually reducing its yield by 25.96% (mercury = 9 mg kg-1). Contents of mercury and silicon in different organs both were the highest in root, followed by rhizome, less in stem and leaf, especially the mercury residue in rhizome manifested as Mother-ginger > Son-ginger > Grandson-ginger. At 6 mg kg-1 soil mercury level, the mercury residue of Mother-ginger exceeds the edible pollutant limit standard (China) by 10.7 times, which makes no obvious risk after being consumed by adults, but poses a potential heal...
Source: Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Ecotoxicol Environ Saf Source Type: research