Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):395-406 | DOI: 10.17221/470/2023-PSE

Mitigation of arsenic toxicity in rice grain through soil-water-plant continuumReview

Okram Ricky Devi ORCID...¹, Bibek Laishram¹, Abhijit Debnath², Gangadhara Doggalli³, Nayanjyoti Ojha¹, Smita Agrawal⁴, Kahkashan Perveen⁵, Najat A. Bukhari⁵, Kalyan Pathak¹, Samiron Dutta⁶

¹ Department of Agronomy, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India

² Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dhalai, India

³ Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India

⁴ Department of Horticulture, Rvskvv Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

⁵ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

⁶ Department of Soil Science, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India

Increased levels of the non-essential hazardous metalloid arsenic (As) in rice grains pose a threat to human health and the sustainability of the rice industry. In several counties, the average As contamination in polished rice has been detected to range from 0.002 to 0.39 mg/kg, which is above the safe limit of 1 mg/kg as recommended by the World Health Organisation. Beyond this limit, the digestive tract, circulatory system, skin, liver, kidney, nervous system and heart can be affected. Humans can develop cancer from consuming or inhaling As. In addition, long-term exposure to drinking water contaminated with arsenic has also been linked to a dose-response relationship with an increased risk of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Rice has been shown to be an indirect source of arsenic accumulation in human bodies. Under flooded paddy soil, trivalent arsenate (AsIII) occupies 87–94% of the total As, while under non-flooded soil, pentavalent arsenate (AsV) predominates (73–96% of the total As). This review aims to provide a thorough and interdisciplinary understanding of the behaviour of As in the paddy soil and transportation to rice grain and further investigate efficient ways to limit arsenic contamination. Supplementation of soil with specific mineral nutrients such as iron (Fe), sulphur (S) and silicon (Si) can significantly decrease the arsenic accumulation in rice grain by minimising its uptake and translocation. The hydrogen bonding potentials of uronic acids, proteins and amino sugars on the extracellular surface of soil microorganisms facilitate the detoxification of arsenic species. Further, rice is absorbed less when exposed to aerobic water management practices than anaerobic ones since it reduces the build-up of As in rice, and the solution is immobilised as in the soil.

Keywords: sustainable; paddy field; pollution; carcinogen

Received: November 27, 2023; Revised: May 6, 2024; Accepted: May 7, 2024; Prepublished online: June 5, 2024; Published: June 27, 2024  Show citation