Abstract
Increased agricultural operations result in increased usage of various pesticides to safeguard crops, however, this is done without paying attention to the effects of the amounting potential harm to both humans and the environment. In this present study, a structured study was conducted on the uptake of atrazine, mesotrione, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2.4-D), and glyphosate herbicides from contaminated soil and translocation into different maize segments. It was observed that 2.4-D was least absorbed by the soil, however, all the studied herbicide showed high absorption in the leafy segment of the maize plant due to the high polarity of the leaf cuticle. Glyphosate showed a high absorption rate in soil, roots, stalk, and leaves while mesotrione was highly absorbed in corn and tassels in all treatments. The absorption rate of the herbicide increased with increasing growth days. The higher treatment concentration (0.75 µg/l) showed elevated accumulation with the highest concentration (1.0 µg/l) observed for glyphosate in leaves after 140 days and high mesotrione in corn (0.51 µg/l) and tassel (0.42 µg/l) observed after 120 days. The PTi values of all treatments were >1 however, the hi data were below 100% indicating minimal possible health risk linked to the intake of these crops by both adults and children.