The Bioconcentration and the Translocation of Heavy Metals in Recently Consumed Salicornia ramosissima J. Woods in Highly Contaminated Estuary Marshes and Its Food Risk

Abstract

Salicornia species are halophyte plants that are an important source for food, pharmacy, and bioenergy. They can be consumed as a leafy vegetable, but they can accumulate heavy metals that carry a health risk when knowledge of how each species behaves in different types of soil is lacking. This present work aimed to determine to what extent S. ramosissima can be cultivated as food in estuaries contaminated by heavy metals and to what extent it can be used in phytoremediation works, by studying its behavior in populations that grow naturally in contaminated soils. We analyzed accumulation and translocation in different parts of the plant for 14 heavy metals and calculated the Health Risk Index value associated with their consumption as a leafy vegetable. The results obtained mean that the S. ramosissima plants that grow in most of the soils of this estuary are unfit for human consumption in some of the populations studied. In conclusion, Salicornia ramosissima J. Woods can accumulate Cd, As, and Pb—among other metals—in its leaves so its consumption should be limited to plants that grow in soils free of these metals.