http://www.revistadechimie.ro REV.CHIM.(Bucharest)♦70♦ No. 1 ♦2019 278 Mobility of Some High Persistent Organochlorine Compounds from Soil to Mentha Piperita DIANA PUIU 1,2 *, MARIANA POPESCU 1,3 , MARCELA NICULESCU 1 , LUOANA FLORENTINA PASCU 1 , TOMA GALAON 1 , CARMEN POSTOLACHE 2 1 National Research and Development Institute for Industrial Ecology, INCD ECOIND Bucuresti, 71-73 Drumul Podul Dambovitei Str., 060652, Bucharest, Romania, 2 Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenei 91-95, 050095, Bucharest, Romania 3 Faculty of Pharmacy Titu Maiorescu, 22 Dambovnicului Str., Bucharest, Romania 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. Keywords: bioconcentration factor, medicinal plants, Mentha Piperita, PCB The concern of soil pollution with persistent organic and inorganic contaminants is still a current issue due to environmental impact on soil quality [1-3] and food webs. The use of persistent organic pollutants (POP), which are the most known organic pollutants, is banned in the EU through the Stockholm Convention on POP in 2001 [4] because of their persistence in water and soil (half-life more than 10 years), toxicity (carcinogenic to humans), high dispersion (even in Tibetan Plateau) and bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms [5]. The contaminants are removed from soils using physical- chemical technologies or through bioremediation processes. The second one can be classified as: transfer process in other environment compartments (through volatilization, air wet deposition, water run-off, irrigation or by up taking into the plants through the roots), abiotic degradation process like oxidation, dehalogenation or dehydrogenation, and biotic degradation [6-8]. The hydrophobic nature of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), one class of the first 12 POPs, is responsible for compounds immobilization on the soil surface, but organic acids and plant-derived sugars act as a surfactant which favors the uptake of PCBs into plant tissue or their biodegradation [9]. The PCBs present in plant cells are metabolized via enzymatic processes (with mono and dioxygenase, dehydrogenase, hydrolase, peroxidase, nitroreductase, dehalogenase, phosphatase or carboxilesterase ) in compounds as other PCBs, or in stable and toxic metabolites as hydroxy-PCBs (OH-PCBs), PCB-epoxide, PCB-catechol and PCB-methylsulfonate, which can damage the biological processes of the plant [10]. But these slow processes indicate a source of contamination for food, vegetables and medicinal herbs, primary products which facilitates the route of pollutants to human and animal organism [11]. Comparing to herbals, in soils PCBs follow *email: diana_puiu@ymail.com a slow metabolic degradation (which means high persistence), mainly based on complex interactions with biofilm generated by microorganisms present in root soil, which consists of bacteria and inorganic structures [12]. The specific microorganisms which degrade PCBs are gram positive and negative bacteria from species like Ac h r o m o b a c t e r , Acinetobacter , Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas, or Bacillus, Rhodococcus which, in the presence of plant phenolics, flavonoids or other compounds, increase the contaminant degradation rate [13]. Anyway, it was revealed that through biotic and abiotic soil conditions, PCBs are first degraded in corresponding chlorinated benzoic acid, chlorobenzoates and ring opening to chlorinated aliphatic acids, compounds which are then mineralized to CO 2 and H 2 O [11]. The selected PCBs from the existing 209 congeners show a similar chlorine number position (Table 1) and differ from non-ortho-PCBs which are called dioxin-like congeners due to same properties and toxicity, but bind strong to organic matter [14]. PCBs uptake into plants from soil (phytoextraction) represents a viable solution in depolluting affected soils, but also a risk of vegetation contamination due to plants ability to enhance the sorption through the roots of the organic compounds [3, 13]. The up taking of pollutants from soils to plants can be assessed by several factors. PCBs bioconcentration in roots is calculated with a bioconcentration root factor (RCF) which represents the ratio between pollutant concentrations quantified in dried roots and soil. In a similar way is calculated the bioconcentration factor in plants (BCF). Some authors developed equations to estimate the BCF in plants based on lipophilicity constant, Log P ow [15]. The theoretical results are posted on Table 1. The main methods used in organic contaminants determination are based on gas or liquid chromatography separation, where gas chromatography technique