Overview
Abdel and Ibrahim grew three radish cultivars in a plastic house in Dohuk and irrigated them with bottled drinking water, well water or river water mixed with wastewater. They report mean lead, copper and zinc in leaves, and lead, copper, zinc and cadmium in roots, as dry matter and as “edible tissue”, by water type, cultivar and their combination (Tables R1 to R6). The paper was given at a conference and printed in the journal’s proceedings issue.
Key numbers
- Edible radish root lead: drinking water 19.69, well water 12.168, wastewater 25.74 µg/g (Table R2, p. 72).
- Edible radish root cadmium: drinking water 2.15, well water 0.986, wastewater 2.539 µg/g (Table R2, p. 72).
- Dry leaf lead: drinking water 148.033, well water 119.35, wastewater 129.925 µg/g (Table R1, p. 72).
Methods (brief)
Split-plot randomized block design with 9 treatments and 4 replicates. Dried tissue (0.5 g) was digested with perchloric acid at 240 °C and read by AAS (GBC 932 AA). No detection limit, reference material or recovery is reported, and “edible tissue” is not defined.
Evidence Fitness
An experimental pot study, not retail or field occurrence data. Lead levels of tens of µg/g in edible roots, and over 100 µg/g in dry leaves even with bottled drinking water, are far above typical radish values and are not explained. Root zinc below 1 µg/g is also unusually low. Table R3 dry-leaf copper repeats its edible-leaf column. The discussion quotes means for cobalt and nickel that were never measured. Use with strong caution. Raw radish root is a proxy for root-vegetable-purees; that page is not linked.