Monitoring of cadmium in "on" and "off" date palms

Biochemical and Genetical Responses of Phoenix dactylifera L. to Cadmium Stress

The cadmium (Cd), a heavy metal, causes toxicity, which leads to hampering the growth and development of the plant. The molecular and biochemical approaches were used for the investigation of antioxidant system response and genotoxicity in date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. Sagai in pot experiment having Cd. The root length was more affected than the shoot length as more accumulation of Cd occurs in roots. Fresh weights of root and shoot were reduced significantly in treated plants as compared to the control. The proline content was increased at low concentration of Cd (300 µM-CdCl2) than the medium and high concentrations (600 and 900 µM-CdCl2), respectively. The thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) content was increased at 600 and 900 µM-CdCl2 compared to the plants treated at 300 µM-CdCl2 and controls. Antioxidant enzymatic assay was performed under Cd stress and compared with control plants. The catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were found to be high in plants treated with CdCl2 at 300 µM compared to at 600 and 900 µM-CdCl2, respectively. The genotoxicity of Cd was assessed using the inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker where all treated and control plants were clustered into three main groups based on genetic similarity. P. dactylifera plants were found to be more divergent at high Cd stress as compared to control and plants treated at low concentration of Cd.

Spectroscopic determination of metals in palm oils from different stages of the technological process

Magnesium, calcium, copper, iron, and lead in palm oils ( Elaeis guineensis ) at various stages of the refining process were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after microwave digestion. The mean concentrations of Mg, Ca, Cu, Fe, and Pb in the studied palm oils varied from 20.7 to 7090.1 μg kg(-1), from 193.9 to 8077.9 μg kg(-1), from 29.7 to 463.0 μg kg(-1), from 115.2 to 415.9 μg kg(-1), and from 1.7 to 16.0 μg kg(-1), respectively, which are below the Polish legal requirements. The comparable precisions for the proposed ICP-MS (RSD = 0.81-5.99%) and standard GFAAS (RSD = 1.18-5.26%) methods demonstrate the benefit of the ICP-MS method in the routine analysis of metal ions in palm oils. There are significant, positive correlations between Ca and Mg, between Ca and Cu, between Fe and Pb, between Cu and Fe, between Cu and Mg, and between Cu and Pb in palm oils determined by two analytical methods (r = 0.8798-0.9817, p < 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used for discrimination of the quality of the analyzed palm oils based on main and trace metal contents determined by the proposed ICP-MS and the standard GFAAS methods. Two main groups were identified by HCA, whereas the classification and characterization of the studied palm oils within each of groups on the basis of metal ions amounts were obtained from PCA. The chemometric analyses demonstrated that crude palm oil had the highest level of the determined metals concentrations. Also, the analyzed metals in palm oils from different steps of the refining process were grouped using HCA to assess the effectiveness of technological processes for their removal.