Translocation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) into plant tissues: A review

Abstract

Occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment and the potential consequences for human health is of serious concern. In the current review, we have tried to provide a summary on recent research and an overview of PPCPs in the soil-plant systems, in the environment and analytical methods used for determination of PPCPs in plant tissues. Further review also include highlights on the fate of PPCPs in agricultural soils receiving treated wastewater irrigation or biosolids amendment, and plant uptake of PPCPs under laboratory and field conditions. PPCPs have shown to be released to the environment and may cause significant impacts on different environmental aspects. Plant roots showed their abilities to uptake and transfer of PPCPs into plant tissues. The uptake of PPCPs varies depending on crop type and physiochemical properties of the chemical compound that were exposed. Consumption of contaminated crops with PPCPs residues may cause serious health problems. Liquid chromatography in combination with mass chromatography was found to be the most popular analytical instrument used for PPCPs determination in different samples. Finally, the information gaps and few suggestions for future research have been proposed in this review. Keywords: PPCPs, Root uptake, Translocation, Human exposure, Analytical methods