Liu et al. 2025 - heavy metals in Nanyang Basin soil-crop system

Liu and coauthors measured As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb in soils and crops from the Nanyang Basin, including 114 peanut samples. The source is routeable to peanuts because crop-tissue concentrations are part of the measured soil-crop system, although the paper is primarily a regional pollution-risk assessment. It should be used as China/Nanyang context rather than silently pooled with other markets.

Key numbers

• Sampling included 5778 surface soil samples, 185 wheat samples, 75 corn samples, 114 peanut samples, and 374 corresponding root-zone soil samples.
• Analytes were total As, Cd, total Cr, total Hg, and Pb (no inorganic-arsenic, methylmercury, or hexavalent-chromium speciation).
• Crop-grain means (Table 8): peanut grains (n=114) averaged 0.019 mg/kg As, 0.232 mg/kg Cr, 0.241 mg/kg Cd, 0.0011 mg/kg Hg, and 0.016 mg/kg Pb. Wheat grains (n=185) averaged 0.001 mg/kg As, 0.054 mg/kg Cr, 0.064 mg/kg Cd, 0.0006 mg/kg Hg, and 0.108 mg/kg Pb. Corn grains (n=75) averaged 0.009 mg/kg As, 0.169 mg/kg Cr, 0.018 mg/kg Cd, 0.0010 mg/kg Hg, and 0.021 mg/kg Pb.
• The mean crop pollution index for Cd in peanut grains was 0.483; the maximum reached 1.488 (Table 9), indicating that some peanut samples exceeded the GB 2762-2017 limit of 0.5 mg/kg for Cd in peanuts.
• Bioaccumulation followed Cd > Hg > Cr > Pb > As in wheat, Cd > Hg > As > Cr > Pb in corn, and Cd > As > Cr > Hg > Pb in peanuts; peanuts showed the highest Cd bioconcentration factor among the three crops.
• The study used pollution index, potential ecological risk index (PERI), bioconcentration factor, and soil-crop comprehensive quality index (IICQ) methods.

Methods (brief)

Soil As and Hg were determined by AF-2000 atomic fluorescence spectrometry, soil Cr by ASXPrimus II X-ray fluorescence, and soil Cd and Pb by Thermo XSERIES2 ICP-MS, following DZ/T 0279-2016 and GB/T 14506-2010. Crop As, Cd, Cr, and Pb were determined by ICP-MS and crop Hg by cold-vapour AAS, following DZ/T 0253-2014. Reported detection limits were 0.01 mg/kg for As, 0.005 mg/kg for Cr, 0.0002 mg/kg for Cd, 0.005 mg/kg for Pb, and 0.0005 mg/kg for Hg. None of the methods speciated As, Hg, or Cr.

Implications

Provides Chinese (Henan, Nanyang Basin) occurrence data for As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb in peanut, wheat, and corn grains with paired root-zone-soil measurements (n=114 for peanut grains). The peanut-Cd distribution — mean 0.241 mg/kg with a maximum of 1.05 mg/kg in grain and 4.674 maximum crop-pollution-index in some samples — is the most policy-relevant signal and supports the routing-target intent of populating peanut Cd occurrence evidence. The study is a regional environmental assessment, not a market-basket of branded products, so values should be treated as China/Nanyang-Basin agricultural-context evidence and not silently pooled with other markets without geographic-variance handling.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Peanuts
• Peanuts
• Corn
• Wheat
• Arsenic
• Cadmium
• Chromium
• Mercury
• Lead

Verification notes

Concentration values are extracted from Table 8 (crop grains) and Table 9 (crop pollution indices); bioaccumulation ordering is from the BCF results section accompanying Fig. 5. GB 2762-2017 limit for Cd in peanuts is 0.5 mg/kg per the paper’s Table 8 row. The paper measures total As, total Hg, and total Cr only; no iAs/MeHg/Cr-VI speciation is reported.

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