Tea plant uptake and translocation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from water and around air.

This study, which aimed to investigate the capacity of tea plant uptake and translocation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), was divided into two sections. One was to study tea plant root uptake of PAHs from water and translocation to leaves. The other was to research tea plant leaf uptake of PAHs from air. It was observed that tea plant roots and leaves could strongly accumulate PAHs from around the environment. The capacity of tea plant uptake and translocation of PAHs were found to be closely relative to the physical-chemical properties of PAHs. With the increase of IgK(ow) (octanol-water partition coefficient) of the PAHs, both root concentration factors and leaf concentration factors increased exponentially, while translocation factors from roots to leaves decreased exponentially.