CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have been an increasing research topic over the past decade. PPCPs can enter aquatic ecosystems through wastewater treatment systems, aquaculture facilities and wastewater irrigation, among other processes. These processes lead to soil and water contamination, and as a consequence PPCPs can also be found in drinking water, and even in crops irrigated with contaminated water. Among PPCPs of increasing concern is the widely used drug diclofenac. This compound can be accumulated and have toxic effects on plants. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the translocation and bio-concentration of diclofenac on chicory plants in soil-plant systems to understand the risks for human health associated with chicory consumption. For this study, chicory plants were irrigated with water (control) and with 50 mL of diclofenac solution (3.42 µM; 0.1% v/v MeOH) every 3 days for 22 days to simulate the irrigation with contaminated water. Diclofenac from soil, root and aerial chicory samples was extracted with QuEChERS methodology and the quantification was made with a HPLC-PDA-QTOF spectrometer. The bioconcentration and the translocation of diclofenac were evaluated following the equations: BAF = Croot+aerial part (µg/100g)/Csoil (µg/100g), and TF = Caerial part (µg/100g)/Croot (µg/100g) for the bioconcentration and the translocation factors, respectively. Potential human health risks associated with the consumption of this compound, have also been assessed estimating the average daily intake (EDI) in children and adults. The results obtained in this study showed a passage of diclofenac from water to the soil, the root and the aerial part of the chicory. The highest concentration was found in soil (57 µg/100g wet weight), while the roots and aerial parts showed a diclofenac uptake of 3.9 µg/100g and 2.6 µg/100g, respectively. Although some phytotoxic effects on roots were observed, the bioconcentration and translocation factor showed low values, indicating that diclofenac does not bioaccumulate in chicory and that it is little translocated from roots to aerial parts. However, the average daily intake of chicory contaminated with diclofenac showed that 0.035 µg/kg/day would be consumed by children, while 0.013 µg/kg/day would be ingested by adults. While this is far from the recommended dose of diclofenac for the treatment of a disease, permanent exposure to it can generate resistance to the drug, as well as favor the increase of diseases related to excessive consumption of this medicine (cardiovascular diseases, digestive problems, allergic reactions, among others). This shows the importance of studying the effect that PPCPs have on our food, in order to measure the possible risks that this can have for human health.