Plants, Microorganisms and Their Metabolites in Supporting Asbestos Detoxification-A Biological Perspective in Asbestos Treatment.

Many countries banned asbestos due to its toxicity, but considering its colossal use, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, disposing of waste containing asbestos is the current problem. Today, many asbestos disposal technologies are known, but they usually involve colossal investment and operating expenses, and the end- and by-products of these methods negatively impact the environment. This paper identifies a unique modern direction in detoxifying asbestos minerals, which involves using microorganisms and plants and their metabolites. The work comprehensively focuses on the interactions between asbestos and plants, bacteria and fungi, including lichens and, for the first time, yeast. Biological treatment is a prospect for in situ land reclamation and under industrial conditions, which can be a viable alternative to landfilling and an environmentally friendly substitute or supplement to thermal, mechanical, and chemical methods, often characterized by high cost intensity. Plant and microbial metabolism products are part of the green chemistry trend, a central strategic pillar of global industrial and environmental development.

Effect of vermiculite feed additive on the chemical, mineral, and amino acid compositions of quail meat.

Background and Aim: Poultry farming plays a significant role in providing the population with high-quality and cheap meat products. The development and success of this industry depend on the proper use of available feed. As a rule, feed additives should compensate for missing elements in livestock diets. This study investigated the effects of vermiculite feed additives on the chemical, amino acid, and mineral compositions of quail meat. Materials and Methods: Texas Quail meat breed birds were randomly divided into three groups (35 heads each). Group I served as the control group, in which the birds were fed a standard diet without any supplements. The diet of Group II was supplemented with 3% vermiculite feed additive, whereas Group III received 5% vermiculite. The experiment was conducted over 120 days. Results: Quails in the experimental groups contained less moisture, had more ash and protein, and were richer in calories in terms of energy value. In terms of mineral composition, the calcium concentrations were 9.9% and 16.5% higher in the in the Group I and II, respectively. Furthermore, the highest percentages of nonessential and essential amino acids were found in the 5% vermiculite group. In the meat of quails that received 5% vermiculite, cadmium and lead salt levels were 20%-25% lower than those in the control variant. Conclusion: The results of our analyses confirmed that meeting the mineral requirements of quails improves animal productivity and meat product quality. Vermiculite as a feed additive improved the chemical, mineral, and amino acid compositions of quail meat when it was added to up to 5% of the feed dry matter. These results will help to improve the feed base of the poultry industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Effects of agricultural landscape structure, insecticide residues, and pollen diversity on the life-history traits of the red mason bee Osmia bicornis.

Agricultural landscapes have changed substantially in recent decades, shifting from the dominance of small fields (S) with diverse cropping systems toward large-scale monoculture (L), where landscape heterogeneity disappears. In this study, artificial nests of the red mason bee, Osmia bicornis, were placed in S and L landscape types on the perimeter of oilseed rape fields representing different oilseed rape coverages (ORC, % land cover). The local landscape structure around each nest was characterised within a 100, 200, 500, and 1000 m radius using ORC and 14 landscape characteristics, which were then reduced by non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) to two axes: nMDS1 characterised the dataset primarily according to land fragmentation and the main crop, whereas nMDS2 captured the prevalence of more natural areas in the landscape. Pollen diversity and insecticide risk levels in the pollen provisions collected by the bees were analysed, and their dependence on the landscape structure was tested. Thereafter, the effects of pollen diversity, insecticide risk, and landscape structure on the life-history traits of bees and their sensitivity to topically applied Dursban 480 EC were determined. Pollen taxa richness in a single nest ranged from 3 to 12, and 34 pesticides were detected in the pollen at concentrations of up to 320 ng/g for desmedipham. The O. bicornis foraging range was relatively large, indicating that the landscape structure within a radius of ~1000 m around the nest is important for this species. Pollen diversity in the studied areas was of minor importance for bee performance, but the ORC or landscape structure significantly affected the life-history traits of the bees. Contamination of pollen with insecticides affected the bees by decreasing the mass of newly emerged adults but their sensitivity to Dursban 480 EC was not related to environmental variables.

Dissipation kinetics and processing behavior of boscalid and pyraclostrobin in greenhouse dill plant (Anethum graveolens L.) and soil.

BACKGROUND: Determining the environmental behavior and fate of chemical compounds during technological processing of plants is a task of great significance nowadays. However, the current knowledge is still incomplete for unique herbal matrices belonging to minor crops. The research in this article presents, for the first time, the dissipation kinetics and processing behavior of carboxamide boscalid (BOS) and stobilurin pyraclostrobin (PYR) fungicides during glasshouse dill (Anethum graveolens L.) cultivation. RESULTS: The half-lives (t1/2 ) of BOS and PYR after application at the recommended and double dosage were in the range: 1.62-2.01 days in plant and 2.08-4.85 days in soil, respectively. The processing behavior in dill was estimated after washing, hot air drying and drying in sunlight without/with pretreatment. Processing factors (PFs) were above 1 after drying (PF = 1.24-1.39 hot air; PF = 1.15-1.28 sunlight) and below this value when the washing step was applied (PF = 0.31-0.42 hot air; PF = 0.21-0.34 sunlight), indicating the highest effectiveness of reduction, up to 73% BOS and 79% PYR. CONCLUSION: BOS/PYR residues at pre-harvest intervals after both doses were below European Union (EU) maximum residue limits (MRLs). The highest effectiveness was noted for drying carried out with the washing step, which has a great influence on the concentration of residues in the final product. The findings can supplement PF databases not set for minor crops and can be used to establish MRLs and determine human exposures more accurately in risk assessment studies. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

A novel approach for fast and simple determination pyrrolizidine alkaloids in herbs by ultrasound-assisted dispersive solid phase extraction method coupled to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are secondary plant metabolites witch can contaminate food, especially herbs. Due to the fact that alkaloids have a strong adverse effect on human health, it is necessary to use sensitive and selective detection methods. In present study a modified method based on LC-MS/MS was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of thirty pyrrolizidine alkaloids and their corresponding N-oxides (PANOs) in herbs samples. Sample extraction was based on ultrasound-assisted dispersive solid phase extraction and clean-up using graphene. Method validation showed that the proposed method hold good recoveries (61-128 %) for PAs/PANOs with RSD <15 %. Limits of quantification has been set at 1 µg kg-1 level for all targeted alkaloids. The optimized method yielded a small matrix effect (-20-20 %) for most PAs/PANOs. The uncertainty associated with the analytical method was not higher than 38 %. The method is operationally simple, time-saving, and can be applied to the analysis of real herb samples.

Metabolic profile and behavior of clethodim and spirotetramat in herbs during plant growth and processing under controlled conditions.

Herbs may contain pesticide residues which are an important discriminator of food security and food quality. The challenge of the research was to assess the fate of the herbicide clethodim (CLE) and the insecticide spirotetramat (SPI) applied in herbs (BBCH 11-21) during herb growth and processing under controlled greenhouse trial conditions. The metabolic profile of CLE and SPI and their degradation products in basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.) and sage (Salvia officinalis L.) was also presented. The half-lives of CLE and SPI in herbs were 1.10-1.56 days and 0.51-0.83 days, respectively. The terminal residues of SPI (SPI-enol, SPI-ketohydroxy, SPI-monohydroxy and SPI-enol-glucoside) and CLE (CLE-sulfone and CLE-sulfoxide) in herbal matrices were measured below EU maximum residue limits. In this paper, we aimed to assess the impact of washing and dehydratation pretreatment and calculated processing factors (PFs) which can be applied to more accurate food safety assessments. The PF values of CLE and SPI after drying prior washing was below 1 indicating reduction of initial residues. Drying process without washing demonstrated increases of SPI concentrations (PF up to 1.50). The lowest PFs were obtained when raw herbal plants were washed before drying showing almost complete degradation of parent compound (93-99%).

Three approaches to minimize matrix effects in residue analysis of multiclass pesticides in dried complex matrices using gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

This paper discusses one of the major concerns in pesticide residue analysis: the matrix effect related to gas chromatography (GC), which can adversely affect quantification. In this study, a comparison of approaches for dealing with the matrix effect was investigated for 236 pesticides in complex matrices, including dried herbs (Centaurea cyanus L., Matricaria chamomilla L., Thymus vulgaris L.) and dried fruit (currants, chokeberry), using a modified QuEChERS method and GC-MS/MS analysis. Three approaches were evaluated: (i) using matrix-matched calibration, (ii) adding a mixture of analyte protectants (APs) to every extract or (iii) injection prior to GC-MS/MS analysis. Finally, minimization of the matrix effect to the acceptable levels of -20 to 20% for over 80% of investigated pesticides was found when APs mixture was injected at the beginning of the sequence. In this approach, the matrix effects were significantly weaker for some pesticides than when matrix-matched calibration was used.

The evaluation of a fast and simple pesticide multiresidue method in various herbs by gas chromatography.

In this study two analytical methods, one based on matrix solid phase dispersion (MSPD) and the other on liquid-solid extraction (LSE), coupled with gas chromatography, were evaluated and used to determine the presence of 163 pesticides (6 acaricides, 62 fungicides, 18 herbicides and 77 insecticides) in various herbs. Both methods were optimized considering different parameters (sample to sorbent mass ratio, extracting solvent, sorbents for clean-up step, etc.). The results of these validated sample preparation procedures were compared. Under optimum conditions, the mean recoveries obtained were in the range of 70-119% for MSPD for most pesticides and 70-118% for LSE, but with several exceptions. Precision values, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD), were ≤16% for MSPD and <18% for LSE. Correlation coefficients were higher than 0.99254 for both methods. LODs (limits of detection) and LOQs (limits of quantification) for MSPD were within the ranges of 0.003-0.03 and 0.005-0.04 mg/kg, respectively. The data demonstrate that the MSPD method was successfully used for the analysis of 163 pesticides in the following herbs: chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.), linden (Tilia), lungwort (Pulmonaria L.), melissa (Melissa L.), peppermint (Mentha piperita L.) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.). This paper indicates the potential of MSPD for qualitative and quantitative analysis of pesticide residues. This method was therefore validated at three spiking levels (the first ranging from 0.005 to 0.05 mg/kg, the second from 0.05 to 0.5 mg/kg and the third from 0.25 to 2.5 mg/kg) and applied to real samples (n = 15). MSPD proves to be a simple, fast and very useful multiresidue method and can be recommended for routine pesticide monitoring studies in various herbs.