Institute for Biomedical Research, Medical Faculty, University of Nis, Nis, Serbia.
Environ Geochem Health. 2013 Apr;35(2):215-26. doi: 10.1007/s10653-012-9477-8. Epub 2012 Aug 1.
Aristolochic acids (AAs) are nephrotoxic and carcinogenic derivatives found in several Aristolochia species. To date, the toxicity of AAs has been inferred only from the effects observed in patients suffering from a kidney disease called "aristolochic acid nephropathy" (AAN, formerly known as "Chinese herbs nephropathy"). More recently, the chronic poisoning with Aristolochia seeds has been considered to be the main cause of Balkan endemic nephropathy, another form of chronic renal failure resembling AAN. So far, it was assumed that AAs can enter the human food chain only through ethnobotanical use (intentional or accidental) of herbs containing self-produced AAs. We hypothesized that the roots of some crops growing in fields where Aristolochia species grew over several seasons may take up certain amounts of AAs from the soil, and thus become a secondary source of food poisoning. To verify this possibility, maize plant (Zea mays) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus) were used as a model to substantiate the possible significance of naturally occurring AAs' root uptake in food chain contamination. This study showed that the roots of maize plant and cucumber are capable of absorbing AAs from nutrient solution, consequently producing strong peaks on ultraviolet HPLC chromatograms of plant extracts. This uptake resulted in even higher concentrations of AAs in the roots compared to the nutrient solutions. To further validate the measurement of AA content in the root material, we also measured their concentrations in nutrient solutions before and after the plant treatment. Decreased concentrations of both AAI and AAII were found in nutrient solutions after plant growth. During this short-term experiment, there were much lower concentrations of AAs in the leaves than in the roots. The question is whether these plants are capable of transferring significant amounts of AAs from the roots into edible parts of the plant during prolonged experiments.
马兜铃酸（AAs）是几种马兜铃属植物中发现的具有肾毒性和致癌性的衍生物。迄今为止，AAs 的毒性仅根据患有称为“马兜铃酸肾病”（AAN，以前称为“中草药肾病”）的肾病患者观察到的效果推断得出。最近，慢性食用马兜铃种子被认为是巴尔干地方性肾病的主要原因，这是另一种类似于 AAN 的慢性肾衰竭形式。到目前为止，人们认为 AAs 只能通过含有自身产生的 AAs 的草药的民族植物学用途（有意或无意）进入人类食物链。我们假设，某些在几个季节中生长有马兜铃属植物的田地中的农作物的根可能会从土壤中吸收一定量的 AAs，从而成为食物中毒的次要来源。为了验证这种可能性，我们使用玉米植物（Zea mays）和黄瓜（Cucumis sativus）作为模型，以证实自然存在的 AAs 根吸收在食物链污染中的可能意义。这项研究表明，玉米植物和黄瓜的根能够从营养液中吸收 AAs，从而在植物提取物的紫外 HPLC 色谱图上产生强烈的峰。这种吸收导致根中的 AAs 浓度甚至高于营养液中的浓度。为了进一步验证根材料中 AA 含量的测量，我们还在植物处理前后测量了营养液中的浓度。在植物生长后，发现营养液中 AAI 和 AAII 的浓度降低。在这个短期实验中，叶片中的 AAs 浓度比根部低得多。问题是，在长时间实验中，这些植物是否能够将大量的 AAs 从根部转移到植物的可食用部分。
