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Characteristics of heavy metal accumulation and risk assessment in understory Panax notoginseng planting system

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Abstract

Yunnan Province is the main planting area of the precious Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) Panax notoginseng; however, it locates the geological area with high soil heavy metals in China. The frequent land replacement due to continuous cropping obstacles and excessive application of chemicals makes P. notoginseng prone to be contaminated by heavy metals under the farmland P. notoginseng (FPn) planting. To overcome farmland shortage, understory P. notoginseng (UPn) was developed as a new ecological planting model featured by no chemicals input. However, this newly developed planting system requires urgently the soil–plant heavy metal characteristics and risk assessment. This study aimed to evaluate the pollution status of eight heavy metals in the tillage layer (0–20 cm), subsoil layer (20–40 cm) and the plants of UPn in Lancang County, Yunnan Province. Pollution index (Pi) showed that the contamination degree of heavy metals in the tillage layer and subsoil layer was Cd > Pb > Ni > Cu > Zn > Cr > Hg > As and Pb > Cd > Cu > Ni > Cr > Hg > Zn > As, respectively. Potential ecological risk index (PERI) for the tillage layer and subsoil layer was slight and middle, respectively. The exceeding standard rate of Cd, As, Pb, Hg, Cu in the UPn roots was 5.33%, 5.33%, 13.33%, 26.67% and 1.33%, respectively, while only Cd and Hg in the UPn leaves exceeded the standard 10% and 14%, respectively. The enrichment abilities of Cd and Hg in the roots and leaves of UPn were the strongest, while that of Pb was the weakest. The Hazard index (HI) and target hazard quotient (THQ) of eight heavy metals in the roots and leaves of UPn were less than 1.Therefore, our results prove that Upn has no human health risk and provide a scientific basis for the safety evaluation and extension of UPn.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Yunnan Provincial Key Programs of Yunnan Eco-friendly Food International Cooperation Research Center project (grant number 2019ZG00901-04), the Major Science and Technique Programs in Yunnan Province (grant numbers 202102AE090042-02 and 202102AA310048) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31960634).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, The Key Laboratory of Medicinal Plant Biology of Yunnan Province, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center On Germplasm Innovation & Utilization of Chinese Medicinal Materials in Southwest China, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China

    Zhenhua Huang, Zhida Shen, Chunlan Liu, Huineng Shi, Shuran He, Guangqiang Long & Wei Fan

  2. College of Resources and Environment, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China

    Zhenhua Huang, Zhida Shen, Chunlan Liu, Huineng Shi, Shuran He & Guangqiang Long

  3. College of Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China

    Weiping Deng

  4. State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Institute of Plant Biology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Jianli Yang

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  1. Zhenhua Huang
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Contributions

WF and JY conceived and designed the experiments; ZH, ZS, CL and HS performed the experiments and analyzed the data; SH, GL and WD assisted in design some experiments and data analysis; WF and ZH wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Jianli Yang or Wei Fan.

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Huang, Z., Shen, Z., Liu, C. et al. Characteristics of heavy metal accumulation and risk assessment in understory Panax notoginseng planting system. Environ Geochem Health 45, 9029–9040 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01392-9

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