The Environmental Significance of Contaminants of Concern in the Soil–Vegetable Interface: Sources, Accumulation, Health Risks, and Mitigation through Biochar

Mohineeta Pandey, Astha Tirkey, Ankesh Tiwari, Sang Soo Lee, Rashmi Dubey, Ki Hyun Kim () and Sudhir Kumar Pandey ()
Additional contact information
Mohineeta Pandey: Department of Botany, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Koni, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh 495009, India
Astha Tirkey: Department of Botany, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Koni, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh 495009, India
Ankesh Tiwari: Department of Botany, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Koni, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh 495009, India
Sang Soo Lee: Department of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju 26493, Korea
Rashmi Dubey: Department of Chemistry, Lal Bahadur Shastri College, Shaheed Nandkumar Patel Vishwavidyalaya, Raigarh, Chhattisgarh 495559, India
Ki Hyun Kim: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Sudhir Kumar Pandey: Department of Botany, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Koni, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh 495009, India

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-23

Abstract: Vegetable consumption is considered as an important part of the human diet as it serves as an essential source of vitamins, nutrients, and minerals. In this regard, the demand for new technologies and ideas in the agricultural sector has grown steadily to help expand the production of vegetable crops. The uptake and accumulation of trace elements (TEs) and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) as contaminants in vegetables have been accelerated by man-made activities. The dietary intake of these contaminated vegetables often poses significant human health risks. To counteract this, mitigation strategies in the form of environmental amendments have received increasing attention in the last decade. The incorporation of amendments in the form of biochar has been shown to reduce the uptake of contaminants in the soil and their accumulation in vegetables. The present review is organized to offer an overview of the occurrence and sources of important contaminants of concern particularly associated with vegetable plants. The factors influencing their uptake and accumulation in the edible parts of vegetable plants are discussed briefly along with the human health risk imposed via the consumption of contaminated vegetables. Furthermore, this review also explores feasible mitigation strategies through the use of biochar for these contaminants, along with future perspectives for addressing this issue of food contamination.

Keywords: trace elements; pharmaceuticals and personal care products; vegetable; uptake; human health; biochar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14539/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14539/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14539-:d:963992

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().