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Identification and quantification of nanoplastics in different crops using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
Summary
Researchers developed a reliable method to measure nanoplastics in food crops and found significant contamination in four types of vegetables including cowpea and cabbage. PVC and polyethylene nanoplastics were the most common, with cowpea showing especially high levels of PET nanoplastics. This is one of the first studies to actually quantify nanoplastic levels in crops, providing important data for understanding how much plastic people may be consuming through their diet.
Quantitative studies of nanoplastics (NPs) abundance on agricultural crops are crucial for understanding the environmental impact and potential health risks of NPs. However, the actual extent of NP contamination in different crops remains unclear, and therefore insufficient quantitative data are available for adequate exposure assessments. Herein, a method with nitric acid digestion, multiple organic extraction combined with pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) quantification was used to determine the chemical composition and mass concentration of NPs in different crops (cowpea, flowering cabbage, rutabagas, and chieh-qua). Recoveries of 74.2-109.3% were obtained for different NPs in standard products (N = 6, RSD <9.6%). The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) were 0.02-0.5 μg and 0.06-1.5 μg, respectively. The detection method for NPs exhibited good external calibration curves and linearity with 0.99. The results showed that poly (vinylchloride) (PVC), poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polyadiohexylenediamine (PA66) NPs could be detected in crop samples, although the accumulation levels associated with the various crops varied significantly. PVC (N.D.-954.3 mg kg, dry weight (DW)) and PE (101.3-462.9 mg kg, DW) NPs were the dominant components in the samples of all four crop species, while high levels of PET (414.3-1430.1 mg kg, DW) NPs were detected in cowpea samples. Furthermore, there were notable differences in the accumulation levels of various edible crop parts, such as stems (60.2%) > leaves (39.8%) in flowering cabbage samples and peas (58.8%) > pods (41.2%) in cowpea samples. This study revealed the actual extent of NP contamination in different types of crops and provided crucial reference data for future research.