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Microplastic Uptake in Vegetables: Sources, Mechanisms, Transport and Food Safety
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This review summarizes current knowledge on how microplastics enter vegetables through soil, water, and air, and how they are transported within plant tissues. Researchers found that microplastics can be taken up through roots and move to edible parts, with uptake varying by plant species, particle size, and soil conditions. The findings highlight that vegetable consumption may be an important but underrecognized pathway for human microplastic exposure.
Although microplastic pollution has been recognized as one of the major environmental challenges of the 21st century, its toxicological impact on crops, especially vegetables, has attracted limited scientific attention until recently. Vegetables represent a key component of the human diet, making any potential contamination of great importance for food safety. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have been conducted to investigate the interactions between microplastics and vegetable crops. This review aims to synthesize the current knowledge on the sources of microplastics in agroecosystems, the mechanisms of uptake and translocation in plants, and the physiological and biochemical responses induced by micro- and nanoplastics. This work aims to improve the scientific basis for assessing the risk of microplastic contamination by identifying gaps in current understanding and suggesting future research directions.
More Papers Like This
Microplastic Uptake in Vegetables: Sources, Mechanisms, Transport and Food Safety
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This review gathered current knowledge on how microplastics enter agricultural soils and get taken up by vegetable crops, which are a major part of the human diet. Researchers found that microplastics can be absorbed through plant roots and transported to edible parts, with uptake influenced by particle size, plastic type, and soil conditions. The study highlights the need for more research on how microplastic contamination in food crops could affect human health and food safety.
Uptake and transport of micro/nanoplastics in terrestrial plants: Detection, mechanisms, and influencing factors
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This review summarizes how micro and nanoplastics enter and move through plants, including uptake through roots and leaves via processes like endocytosis and movement through cell walls. Smaller particles penetrate more easily, and factors like surface charge and soil conditions affect how much plastic plants absorb. The findings are important because they show that crops can take up microplastics from contaminated soil, creating a potential pathway for these particles to reach the human diet.
Micro- and Nanoplastics in Agroecosystems: Plant Uptake, Food Safety, and Implications for Human Health
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This review of existing research shows that tiny plastic particles are getting into our food crops through contaminated soil and air, causing stress and damage to the plants. These microplastics have been found in the parts of vegetables we actually eat - including leafy greens, root vegetables, and fruits - which means people may be consuming them in their daily diet. However, scientists still don't fully understand how much plastic we're eating or what the long-term health effects might be.
Uptake and Accumulation of Nano/Microplastics in Plants: A Critical Review
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This review summarizes the latest research on how microplastics and nanoplastics are taken up by food crops through roots and leaves. Nanoplastics can penetrate plant cell walls more easily than larger microplastics, and the water-pulling force of transpiration is the main driver moving particles up through the plant. These findings are important for food safety because they confirm that plastic particles in contaminated soil can end up inside the fruits and vegetables people eat.
Micro and nano plastics in fruits and vegetables: A review.
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This review examined how microplastics contaminate fruits and vegetables through root uptake, surface adhesion, and irrigation water, covering analytical methods for detection and highlighting the role of plants as an underappreciated entry point for plastics into the human food chain.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.