Bioavailability and bioaccumulation characterization of essential and heavy metals contents in R. acetosa, S. oleracea and U. dioica from copper polluted and referent areas

Background: bioavailability of metals occurring in soil is the basic source of its accumulation in vegetables andherbs. the impact of soil pollution (due to urban and mining areas) on the food chain presents a challengefor many investigations. availability of metals in a potentially polluted soil and their possible transfer andbioaccumulation in sorrel (rumex acetosa), spinach (spinacia oleracea) and common nettle (urtica dioica), wereexamined.methods: microwave digestion was applied for total digestion of the plant tissues, while on the soil samplesopen wet digestion with a mixture of acids was applied. three extraction methods were implemented for thebioavailable metals in the soil. atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma was used fordetermination of the total contents of 21 elements.results: significant enrichments in agricultural soil for as, pb and zn (in urban area), cd, cu and ni (in a coppermine area), compared with the respective values from european standards were detected. on the basis of threedifferent extraction methods, higher availability was assumed for both lithogenic and anthropogenic elements.translocation values > 1 were obtained for as, cd, cu, ni, pb and zn. higher bioconcentrating value was obtainedonly for cd, while the bioaccumulation values vary from 0.17 for cd to 0.82 for zn.conclusions: the potential availability of hazardous metals in urban and mining soils is examined using dtpa-tea-cacl2(urban) and hcl (cu-mines areas). our results suggested that s. oleracea and r. acetosa have a phytostabilization potentialfor cd, cu, ni and pb, while u. dioica only for cu. r. acetosa has a potential for phytoextraction of cd in urban andcopper polluted areas.