Effect of soil organic matter content on plant uptake factor of ginseng for endosulfan

Abstract

The plant uptake of endosulfan, a new persistent organic pollutants from soil environment was investigated on ginseng through the field survey in Korea. The endosulfan residues in soil for this survey were ranged on 0.013-0.136 mg kg -1 . The plant uptake factor (PUF) for endosulfan in ginseng was 0.243-1.708 and the highest PUF was found on 3-year-old ginseng. The PUF for endosulfan decreased in the longer cultivation period and it might be caused by the dilution effect of ginseng growth. In addition, the soil organic matter (SOM) content affected on the PUF negatively and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between SOM and PUF was -0.7812 (p <0.05). Thus, higher SOM would positively affect to reduce the endosulfan residue in ginseng root.