Do plants absorb toxins from the soil?

[chicken_roll]

Do they? Particularly can Nerium oleander toxins be absorbed from vegetables and be stored in their fruits/leaves? Thanks in advance Jon

[Powerless Agronomist]

The plants are absorbing toxins - plain sample are pesticides which remain in plants and finish in our body, and then start gambling with our health, some win many lose..

[chicken_roll]

Yes I know, but pesticides enter into the plants because of phloem allows some of them (some active matters) to move through its vessels (to be selectively translocated through its vessels), others cannot be translocateed and stop on the plant surface and/or in the parenchymatic cells beside it.

I need to know if (every, or some) plant phloem allows Nerium oleander toxin to be translocated through its vessels as easily as some pesticides, so that this toxin could be stored in its edible tissues and damage our health. Thanks, bye, Jon

[William L. Rose]

Came in late on this but for some reason you think that Nerium oleander toxins (organic compounds) have migrated to you soil and that it persists there (like poly-chlorinate biphenyls) long enough to be picked up by plants and actively transported across cell membranes. The phloem, as you must know, basically is the water pipe for plants. Other than water, larger molecules (nutrients) have to be selected.

The real test would be to grow some veggies with oleander and some without. Gas chromatography would let you see the differences and column chromatography would separate them out for you to characterize.

Listings that I've read refer to ingestion of oleander for toxic effects in mammals, birds, reptiles. As long as you don't eat Monarch butterfly there shouldn't be much of a problem.

Anecdotally, I grow tomatoes and cucumbers around foxglove and I've never got so much as a buzz :-(

- Bill

[Salmon Egg]

Before worrying much about plants absorbing toxins accidentally, worry more about plants that do it on purpose, so to speak. Eggplant has its nicotine. Worry about accidentally eating peach seeds or apple seeds. What if tapioca were not processed correctly? On and on. Much of such worry is an indicator that you have too much time on your hands.

Bill

-- Ferme le Bush

[Penelope Periwinkle]

Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, not oleanders. While they both contain cardiac glycosides, and oleander aphids plague my milkweed plants, monarchs prefer milkweeds.

Penelope, who has monarch caterpillars munching her milkweed right now.

[chicken_roll]

Really, I had not thought to this fact. You think oleander toxins could not remain in the soil enough time to be absorbed in such a toxic quantity?

The phloem,

Yes I know.

You think anyone make this kind of tests on plants and perhaps on the Oleander too?

Do you know what is the necessary dose to kill a man, or a child (maybe this dosis cannot be stored in veggie leafs and tree fruits!?) ?

:-)

Thanks, Bill

[William L. Rose]

Jon, I have no expertise in this area. All I know is that I'm growing a garden next to where a pyracantha bush used to be and I am growing tomatoes, cucumber, and parsely in amongst wild foxgloves and I'm here to tell the tale. On the other hand, asbestos takes twenty years to raise it's ugly head in the form of cancer. Life is inherently unsafe. As long as I get my three score and ten, I will be a happy camper (yikes! make that four score and ten).

Nature is a battle zone and it is full of disincentives, among them, toxins. Fortunately, we have a liver whose function it is to protect us from toxins in our food supply (such as lactating lettuce, and raw mushrooms). Be prudent, but don't be paranoid.

I'm sure that someone, somewhere has the knowledge that you look for. Pharmaceutical companies have been analysing botanicals for a long time and these days if they find anything interresting (something they can make a buck on), they'll patent it. Start with the biology department at a local college. Teachers usually go beserk when they find someone who actually wants to learn.

- Bill

"Here at the fountains sliding foot, or at some fruit tree's mossy root, casting my body's vest aside, my soul into the boughs doth glide, and there like a bird it sits and sings, then whets and preens its' silver wings, and till prepar'd for longer flight, waves in it's plumes the varied light".

- The Garden, Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

[chicken_roll]

All this, I think, it's a very good think, I would like to do the same. Thanks for all your informations. I'm sorry I didn't want to criticize you, perhaps I only asked too much questions! Really I am very interested to know what I asked you! :-)

On the other hand, asbestos takes twenty years to

This a very good advice, perhaps sometimes I'm a little paranoid, but this answer was only for my uncle that is frequently really paranoid :-)))

I'm an agronomist too, but I don't know very good issues about toxins, and frequently I ask myself something I don't know, so I decided to post a message here. I'm happy to verify my "collegues" are well learned also in scientific issues, I would like sometimes to talk about them. Then, I hope here could be a good place for it.

Thanks; as I said before: All this is only for my uncle. He is a doctor and as lot of them, a little paranoid. I hope what you said before could be enough for him.

Thanks Jon

[Penelope Periwinkle]

I have a dear friend who makes pyracantha jelly every year. She uses the ripe berries, and it tastes like honey.

Penelope

[Compostman]

As part of a phytoremediation project at a Superfund site, The Army Corps of Engineering is conducting an experiment to determine whether ferns will remove arsenic from the soil. _________________ John Henry Wheeler Washington, DC USDA Zone 7

[chicken_roll]

I think this is very interesting. Where can I read something about this? Are there any press releases about this issue?

[William L. Rose]

Jon,

what, you weren't listening either? Mon Dieu.

I believe this all started with anxiety over transferring toxins from an oleander to your edible garden. Then there was a bit of contention from another reader of this group about whether monarch butterflies dine on milkweed or oleander. They are both members of the milkweed family but different genera (my bad). This is the problem with being dilettante. I can already feel my attention and interest drifting away. But before I dash off to my next bright and shinny preoccupation, let me make one final observation.

Sadly, natural organic structures (including toxins) degrade into lower energy compounds or elements. Natural inorganic toxins like arsenic, lead, mercury, ect., do not because they are already in their lowest energy state, and as a result they are persistent in the environment. Don't plant on a "Superfund Site".

Ask questions. If you don't understand the answer, re-phrase the question. (Maybe it is ignorance on your part or maybe it is just a bad answer.) Question authority. If people didn't question authority, we wouldn't have had Copernicus, Galileo, or Newton.

Gut Glück,

- Bill

[Compostman]

Try this web site. It's the Corp of Engineers site on the project.

Henry Wheeler Washington, DC USDA Zone 7

["Jon ChicKent]

Thanks, Compostman.