Arsenic uptake and speciation in rice plants grown under greenhouse conditions with arsenic contaminated irrigation water.

The accumulation of arsenic (As) by rice (Oryza sativa L.) is of great interest considering the dietary intake of rice is potentially a major As exposure pathway in countries where rice is irrigated with As contaminated groundwater. A small scale rice paddy experiment was conducted to evaluate the uptake of As by rice. Arsenic concentrations in rice tissue increased in the order grain<<leaf<stem<<<root with the As concentration in the rice grain, in some cases, exceeding the maximum Australian permissible concentration of 1 mg kg(-1). Speciation of As in rice tissue was performed using a modified protein extraction procedure and trifluoroacetic acid extraction. Whilst higher As recoveries were obtained using trifluoroacetic acid extraction, both methods identified arsenite and arsenate as the major As species present in the root, stem and leaf, however, arsenite and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) were the major As species identified in the grain. Notably, DMA comprised 85 to 94% of the total As concentration in the grain. The high proportion of organic to inorganic As in the grain has implications on human health risk assessment as inorganic As species are more bioavailable than methylated As species.