Coupling sprinkler freshwater irrigation with vegetable species selection as a sustainable approach for agricultural production in farmlands with a history of 50-year wastewater irrigation.

Soil contamination and crop risks of heavy metal(loid)s are widely reported after the long-term irrigation of treated wastewater, causing an adverse influence on agricultural sustainability. Here, we collected soils after 50 years of wastewater irrigation to cultivate cabbage (Brassica pekinensis L.), rape (Brassica chinensis L.), carrots (Daucus carota L.), and potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.), using surface and sprinkler irrigation with freshwater and wastewater. In general, we found the statistically insignificant influence of short-term freshwater irrigation on the soil and vegetable metal(loid) concentrations. Most of the vegetables had potential adverse health risks with the relatively lower risks in carrots and potatoes, and most of the risks were contributed by As and Cd. Nevertheless, we observed negligible health risks for all studied metal(loid)s in potatoes under the freshwater irrigations. Besides, compared to wastewater irrigations, freshwater irrigations produced lower Cd health risks in all four vegetable species. Sprinkler irrigation with freshwater was a favorable approach for reducing the uptake of metal(loid)s from soils and the metal(loid) concentrations in aboveground parts. Our study highlights the possibility of reducing vegetable metal(loid) risks in contaminated farmlands via a combined approach of coupling the short-term decrease in their levels in irrigation water with vegetable species selection.

Triterpenoids and Flavonoids from the Leaves of Astragalus membranaceus and Their Inhibitory Effects on Nitric Oxide Production.

Four new cycloartane triterpenes, named huangqiyegenins V and VI and huangqiyenins K and L (1-4, resp.), together with nine known triterpenoids, 5-13, and eight flavonoids, 14-21, were isolated from a 70%-EtOH extract of Astragalus membranaceus leaves. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analyses, and the compounds were identified as (9ß,11α,16ß,20R,24S)-11,16,25-trihydroxy-20,24-epoxy-9,19-cyclolanostane-3,6-dione (1), (9ß,16ß,24S)-16,24,25-trihydroxy-9,19-cyclolanostane-3,6-dione (2), (3ß,6α,9ß,16ß,20R,24R)-16,25-dihydroxy-3-(ß-D-xylopyranosyloxy)-20,24-epoxy-9,19-cyclolanostan-6-yl acetate (3), and (3ß,6α,9ß,16ß,24E)-26-(ß-D-glucopyranosyloxy)-16-hydroxy-3-(ß-D-xylopyranosyloxy)-9,19-cyclolanost-24-en-6-yl acetate (4). All isolated compounds were evaluated for their inhibitory activities against LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Compounds 1-3, 14, 15, and 18 exhibited strong inhibition on LPS-induced NO release by macrophages with IC50 values of 14.4-27.1 µM.

[Ln2(C2O4)2(pyzc)2(H2O)2]n[Ln = Pr (1), Er (2)]: novel two-dimensional lanthanide coordination polymers with 2-pyrazinecarboxylate and oxalate.

We report for the first time hydrothermal synthesis of lanthanide-pyzcH polymers, [Ln2(C2O4)2(pyzc)2 (H2O)2]n [Ln = Pr (1), Er (2)], in which pyzcH was decomposed into C2O42- and thus caused novel two-dimensional hexagonal lattice networks. The magnetic property of polymer 1 has been studied by an approximate treatment being enlightened by McPherson et al. (Inorg. Chim. Acta 1988, 148, 265), leading to Delta = -4.3 cm-1, zJ' = -11.73 cm-1, and g = 0.79. Complex 2 displays an intense room-temperature, liquid-state luminescent emission.