Lead accumulation in different Chinese cabbage cultivars and screening for pollution-safe cultivars

Recently, the concept of pollution-safe cultivars (PSCs) was proposed to minimize the influx of pollutants to the human food chain. Variations in lead (Pb) uptake and translocation among Chinese cabbage ( Brassica pekinensis L.) cultivars were investigated in a pot-culture experiment and a field-culture experiment to screen out Pb-PSCs for food safety. The results of the pot-culture experiment showed that shoot Pb concentrations under two Pb treatments (500 and 1500 mg kg −1) varied significantly ( p < 0.05) between cultivars, with average values of 3.01 and 6.87 mg kg −1, respectively. Enrichment factors (EFs) and translocation factors (TFs) in cultivars were less than 0.50 and varied significantly ( p < 0.05) between cultivars. Shoot Pb concentrations in 12 cultivars under treatment T 1 (500 mg kg −1) were lower than 2.0 mg kg −1. The field-culture experiment further confirmed Qiuao, Shiboqiukang and Fuxing 80 as Pb-PSCs, which were suitable to be cultivated in low-Pb (