Nanoparticles enter the food chain?
A group of scientists at the University of Delaware have discovered that plants can store nanoparticles in their tissues. This is the first experiment that proves this thesis. This means that nanoparticles could become a part of the food chain, because plants are it’s foundation.
The whole experiment was done by using pumpkin plants. “We did it to show the place and the impact of nanoparticles in the environment. This is a preliminary study, but we hope to have more details soon.” says Yan Jin, a professor at the University of Delaware who lead the research crew.
“We chose pumpkins because they’re easy to grow and can take a lot of water.”
The plants were grown in an aqueous medium and mostly iron oxide nanoparticles were added. After twenty days, the plants were cut in pieces and dried. Magnetometer was used to detect if any nanoparticles were absorbed by the plant.
“This is a really new technique when doing this kind of research.” says Jin. Magnetometer showed “positive” results, and the exact location of nanoparticles in the plant’s tissue. The crew also did the same research on lima beans, but the magnetometer results were “negative”. That means that various plants act different.
The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring and was funded by EPSCoR, NSF and the state of Delaware.
