This study aimed to evaluate the behavior of Mentha piperita under Cd, Pb, Ni, and As soil contamination and their transfer from soil in plants as well as translocation in the roots/stems/leaves system compared with a control without metal addition. The mint seedlings were exposed for a three-month period using two metal mixtures in the same concentrations such as AsCd and AsCdNiPb (23.7 mg/kg As, 5 mg/kg Cd, 136 mg/kg Ni, and 95 mg/kg Pb). The results of metal concentration in plants showed that Cd, Ni, and Pb were accumulated in different parts of the plant, except for As. In plants organs, the order of metal accumulation was roots > stems > leaves. No significant impact on the growth, development, and chlorophyll content compared to the control was observed in the first month of exposure. After three months of exposure, phytotoxic effects occurred. Generally, the transfer coefficients and translocation factors values were less than 1, indicating that Mentha piperita immobilized the metals in root. The laboratory experiments highlighted that for a short period of time, Mentha piperita has the capacity to stabilize the metals at the root level and was a metal-tolerant plant when using a garden rich-substrate.

This study presents the behavior of white mustard seedlings Sinapis alba grown for three months in laboratory polluted soil containing As, Cd, Ni and Pb. Four different experiments were performed in which As was combined with the other three toxic metals in different combinations (As, AsCd, AsCdNi, AsCdNiPb), keeping the same concentrations of As and Cd in all tests and following the national soil quality regulations. The effects of these metals were monitored by the analytical control of metal concentrations in soil and plants, bioavailability tests of mobile metal fractions using three different extracting solutions (DTPA + TEA + CaCl₂-DTPA, DTPA + CaCl₂-CAT, and CH₃COONH₄ + EDTA-EDTA) and calculation of bioaccumulation and translocation factors. Additionally, micro, and macro-nutrients both in soil and plant (root, stem, leaves, flowers and seeds) were analyzed in order to evaluate the impact of toxic metals on plant nutrient metabolism. Metals were significantly and differently accumulated in the plant tissues, especially under AsCdNi and AsCdNiPb treatments. Significant differences (p < 0.05) in the concentration of both As and Cd were highlighted. Translocation could be influenced by the presence of other toxic metals, such as Cd, but also of essential metals, through the competition and antagonism processes existing in plant tissues. Significantly, more Cd and Ni levels were detected in leaves and flowers. Cd was also detected in seeds above the WHO limit, but the results are not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The extraction of metallic nutrients (Zn, Cu, Mn, Ni, Mg, K, Fe, Ca, Cr) in the plant was not influenced by the presence of toxic metal combinations, on the contrary, their translocation was more efficient in the aerial parts of the plants. No phytotoxic effects were recorded during the exposure period. The most efficient methods of metal extraction from soil were for As-CAT; Cd-all methods; Pb and Ni-DTPA. The Pearson correlations (r) between applied extraction methods and metal detection in plants showed positive correlations for all toxic metals as follows: As-CAT > DTPA > EDTA, Cd-DTPA > CAT > EDTA, Ni-EDTA = DTPA > CAT, Pb-EDTA = DTPA = CAT). The results revealed that Sinapis alba has a good ability to accumulate the most bioavailable metals Cd and Ni, to stabilize As at the root level and to block Pb in soil.

One cationic surfactant with a wide spectrum of microbiocidal activity is benzethonium chloride (BEC). Despite being widely used, the toxicity data on vertebrate organisms are limited. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate within this study the acute toxicity of BEC on the gills and kidneys of Cyprinus carpio (European carp). An alteration of the antioxidant enzymes activities (glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase) was noticed after 96 h of exposure, along with an elevation of lipid peroxidation and decreased concentration of reduced glutathione, which confirmed that BEC was able to induce toxicity to these tissues. These metabolic effects were correlated with unspecific structural changes observed in gills and kidneys, having moderate degree of severity (such as an increase of melanomacrophages aggregation incidence and cytoplasm vacuolation of goblet cells in collecting tubules) and generally being compatible with life for the exposure time studied. The most severe structural effects were observed in gills after 96 h, noticing a lamellar aneurysm, hemorrhages and lamellar epithelium disruption due to the blood vessels and pillar cells damages and increased blood flow inside the lamellae. By our research we can confirm the utility of biochemical and histological analyses in the fish organs as tools for monitoring the water quality and ecotoxicological potential of chemicals.

Background: Romania is one of the European countries reporting very high antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates and consumption of antimicrobials. We aimed to characterize the AMR profiles and clonality of 304 multi-drug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) strains isolated during two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) from hospital settings, hospital collecting sewage tanks and the receiving wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in the main geographical regions of Romania. Methods: The strains were isolated on chromogenic media and identified by MALDI-TOF-MS. Antibiotic susceptibility testing and confirmation of ESBL- and CP- producing phenotypes and genotypes were performed. The genetic characterization also included horizontal gene transfer experiments, whole-genome sequencing (WGS), assembling, annotation and characterization. Results: Both clinical and aquatic isolates exhibited high MDR rates, especially the Ab strains isolated from nosocomial infections and hospital effluents. The phenotypic resistance profiles and MDR rates have largely varied by sampling point and geographic location. The highest MDR rates in the aquatic isolates were recorded in Galați WWTP, followed by Bucharest. The Ab strains harbored mostly bla_OXA-23, bla_OXA-24, bla_SHV, bla_TEM and bla_GES, while Pa strains bla_IMP, bla_VIM, bla_NDM, bla_VEB, bla_GES and bla_TEM, with high variations depending on the geographical zone and the sampling point. The WGS analysis revealed the presence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to other antibiotic classes, such as aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, sulphonamides, fosfomycin, phenicols, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole as well as class 1 integrons. The molecular analyses highlighted: (i) The presence of epidemic clones such as ST2 for Ab and ST233 and ST357 for Pa; (ii) The relatedness between clinical and hospital wastewater strains and (iii) The possible dissemination of clinical Ab belonging to ST2 (also proved in the conjugation assays for bla_OXA-23 or bla_OXA-72 genes), ST79 and ST492 and of Pa strains belonging to ST357, ST640 and ST621 in the wastewaters. Conclusion: Our study reveals the presence of CP-producing Ab and Pa in all sampling points and the clonal dissemination of clinical Ab ST2 strains in the wastewaters. The prevalent clones were correlated with the presence of class 1 integrons, suggesting that these isolates could be a significant reservoir of ARGs, being able to persist in the environment.