Dieldrin-dissolving abilities of the xylem saps of several plant families, particularly Cucurbita pepo L.

The uptake ability of hydrophobic organic chemicals by plants and the nature of xylem sap of the plants were studied. The plants were grown in soil contaminated with dieldrin. High amounts of dieldrin were detected in the shoots of Cucurbita pepo and Cucumis sativus, but little was seen in the shoots of Brassica oleracea var. italica, Solanum lycopersicum, Glycine max, Zea mays, and Helianthus annuus. The xylem saps of C. pepo and C. sativus leached dieldrin adsorbed on C8 granules, but those of the other plants did not. The xylem saps of C. pepo and C. sativus eluted high amounts of dieldrin from the size-exclusion chromatography column near the fractions of RNase A (13.7 kDa) after Aprotinin (6.5 kDa), which has a larger molecular weight than dieldrin (381). The enhancement of dieldrin solubility by xylem sap was reduced by proteinase and heating. It was suspected that the protein-like materials in the xylem sap delivered dieldrin from the roots to the shoots.