• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.449-460
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• 2012

Plants have versatile detoxification systems to encounter the phytotoxicity of the wide range of natural and synthetic compounds present in the environment. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) is an enzyme that detoxifies natural and exogenous toxic compounds by conjugation with glutathione (GSH). Recently, several roles of GST giving stress tolerance in plants have demonstrated, but little is known about the role of ginseng GSTs. Therefore, this work aimed to provide further information on the GST gene present in Panax ginseng genome as well as its expression and function. A GST cDNA (PgGST) was isolated from P. ginseng cDNA library, and it showed the amino acid sequence similarity with theta type of GSTs. PgGST in ginseng plant was induced by exposure to metals, plant hormone, heavy metals, and high light irradiance. To improve the resistance against environmental stresses, full-length cDNA of PgGST was introduced into Nicotiana tabacum. Overexpression of PgGST led to twofold increase in GST-specific activity compared to the non-transgenic plants, and the GST overexpressed plant showed resistance against herbicide phosphinothricin. The results suggested that the PgGST isolated from ginseng might have a role in the protection mechanism against toxic materials such as heavy metals and herbicides.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2016

The phytoextraction of some toxic heavy metals from municipal waste dump soil by castor plant (Ricinus communis) was tested under natural and single or mixed chelant-assisted scenarios in pot microcosms. A sandy loam with total metal contents (mg/kg): Cd (84.5), Cu (114.5), Ni (70.3), Pb (57.8), and Zn (117.5), was sampled from an active dumpsite in Calabar, Nigeria and used for the study. Castor (small seed variety) was grown under natural phytoextraction or single/binary chelant (citric acid, oxalic acid, and EDTA) applications (5-20 mmol/kg soil) for 63 days. Castor exhibited no visual phytotoxic symptoms with typically sigmoid growth profiles at the applied chelant doses. Growth rates, however, decelerated with increase in chelant dose. Post-harvest biomass yields were higher under chelant application than for natural phytoextraction. Both root and shoot metal concentrations (mg/kg) increased quasilinearly and significantly ($p{\leq}0.05$) with increase in chelant dose, furnishing maximum levels as: Cd (55.6 and 20.9), Cu (89.5 and 58.4), Ni (49.8 and 19.6), Pb (32.1 and 12.1), and Zn (99.5 and 46.6). Ranges of translocation factors, root and shoot bioaccumulation factors were 0.21-3.49, 0.01-0.89 and 0.01-0.51, respectively. Overall, the binary chelant treatments were less toxic for R. communis growth and enhanced metal accumulation in shoots to a greater extent than the single chelant scenarios, but more so when EDTA was present in the binary combination. This suggests that the mixed chelants could be considered as alternative treatments for enhanced phytoextraction and revegetation of degraded waste dump soils.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.261-271
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• 1999

Mining activity in the Gubong gold mine started in 1908 and lasted up to recent days. Heavy metals derived from the activity may be porentially toxic to human life and envirinment of this area. Because metal toxicity depends on chemical associations into five operationally defined groups: exchangeable, carbonate, reducible, oxidizable, and residual fractions, and the Most of heavy metals have significant little significance (alomost<1%). And Cu is mainly associated with the oxidizable from. Total concentration of heavy metals, pH, and mineralogy affect the chemical forms of the metals. Heavy metal concentrations. Significant amounts of metal elements (5∼65.1% in Pb, 6.2∼39.7% in Zn, 8.7∼54.7% in Cd, and 3.6∼24.7% in Cu) were present in carbonate form from mine wastes, contaminated soils and sediments. High pH value and cerussite (Pb bearing carbonate mineral) in mine wastes, contaminated soils and sediments. High pH value and cerussite (Pb beraring varbonate mineral) in mine waste support this result. Areas with high corbonate bound from would have higher potentoal conamination, however, because elements of carbonate bound forms are easily mobilized under lower pH conditions in the surface envionments due to acid to rain soil acidification.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.187-193
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• 1990

Ganoderma lucidum has been widely used not only as ingredients in herbal medicine but also in pharmacological soft drinks. The author collected for analysis of content of 8 kinds of heavy metal(Cd, pb, Hg, Cu, Mn, Fe, As) in soil and cluture soil in an around the Taegu area including Sang Ju, Non Gong, Keum Ho, and Weol Bae. THe toxic content in Gaoderma lucidum showed relatively low level as in cadmium lead mercury arsenic : 0.8-0.13ppm 0.17-1.43ppm 0.02-0.32ppm 0.01-0.19ppm respectively : in copper mangenese zinc and iron : 0.93-4.29ppm, 0.37-2.18ppm 1.02-1.65ppm, 4.57-11.04ppm those grown in soil showed higher percentages of content than those grown on logs in lead copper zinc and iron by 43.2% 68.6%, 20.3% and 43.2% respectively. The content of heavy metals in those grown in soil and culture soil tended to be higher in the areas near factories of industrial complexes especially in manganese and iron. The content of heavy metals in soil and culture soil appeared lower than the mean values of Korean Soil. No interrelationship was found in the content of heavy metals between those of Ganoderma lucidum grown on logs and those grown in soil. In case of pot cultivation however the mushroom spawns are grown originally in soil which seems to influence the degree of content of heavy metals of media.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.574-583
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• 2008

The results of HAPs emission data using TRI (Toxic Release Inventory), SODAM (Source Data Management system) were investigated and the emissions of 7 heavy metals from their sources and emission processes were also analyzed. Questionnaire for source data analysis as well as the stack sampling were carried out for 17 factories among 6 selected industrial types. The annual amount of emissions was estimated based on the measured concentration and flow rates. All sources were operated with high efficiency control devices and the concentration levels of all heavy metals were shown to be below 0.1 to of regulation standard. The highest emission source of heavy metals was steel manufacturing industry with the annual emission of 342.9 kg/yr and followed by hazardous waste incinerator, paint manufacturing, nonferrous metal manufacturing, rolling & press goods manufacturing and storage battery manufacturing. In the case of Hg, the emissions were quite significant from electric acros of steel manufacturing industry, although the concentration level was below the emission standard, showing the necessity of specific care for its management.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.187-194
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• 2013

Microalgae are sensitive indicators of environmental changes, and hence they are widely used in environmental risk assessments and for the development of discharge guidelines. Here we evaluated the toxicity of metals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to the marine green microalga, Tetraselmis suecica. The toxicants investigated included the metals, Cu, Ni, and Pb; and the EDCs, bisphenol A (BPA), endosulfan (ES), and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). The endpoints were variations in cell counts and chlorophyll a levels. T. suecica displayed a varied pattern of sensitivity to the toxicants. Based on the 72-h median effective concentration ($EC_{50}$), ES (0.045 mg/L) was most toxic to T. suecica, followed by PCB (3.96 mg/L) and Pb (9.62 mg/L). Interestingly, T. suecica was relatively tolerant to Cu (43.03 mg/L). The 72-h $EC_{50}$ values of Ni and BPA were approximately 16 mg/L. Our data suggest that this species may be relatively tolerant to most of the chemicals within their permissible limits in the environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.8-11
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• 1997

Current methods of evaluating soil contamination by heavy metals rely on analyzing samples for total contents of metals or quantities recovered in various chemical extracting solutions. Results from these approaches provide only an index for evaluation because these methodologies yield values not directly related to bioavailability of soil-borne metals. In addition, even though concentrations of metals may be less than those required to cause toxic effects to biota, they may cause substantial effects on soil chemical parameters that determine soil quality and sustainable productivity. The objective of this research was to characterize effects of Cu or Cd additions on soil solution chemistry of soil quality indices, such as pH, EC, nutrient cation distribution and quantity/intensity relations (buffer capacity). Metals were added at rates ranging from 0 to 400 mg/kg of soil. Soil solution was sequentially extracted from saturated pastes using vacuum. Concentrations of Cu or Cd remaining in soil solutions were very low as compared to those added to the soils, warranting that most of the added metals were recovered as nonavailable (strongly adsorbed) fractions. Adsorption of the added metals released cations into soil solution causing increases of soluble cation contents and thus ionic strength of soil solution. At metal additions of 200~400 mg/kg, EC of soil solution increased to as much as 2~4 dS/m; salinity levels considered high enough to cause detrimental effects on plant production. More divalent cations (Ca+Mg) than monovalent cations (K+Na) were exchanged by Cu or Cd adsorption. The loss of exchangeable nutrient cations decreased long-term nutrient supplying capacity or each soil. At 100 mg/kg or metal loading, the buffering capacity was decreased by 60%. pH of soil solution decreased linearly with increasing metal loading rates, with a decrement of up to 1.3 units at 400 mg Cu/kg addition. Influences of Cu on each of these soil quality parameters were consistently greater than those of Cd. These effects were of a detrimental nature and large enough in most cases to significantly impact soil productivity. It is clear that new protocols are needed for evaluating potential effects of heavy metal loading of soils.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 1999

Acid mine drainage (AMD) results from sulfuric acid produced by the oxidation of pyrite, and contains large amounts of toxic elements. In the neutralization of AMD, iron and aluminum hydroxides are the major precipitates and those two can be separated with two-phase neutralization. In this study, removal of toxic elements by the two phases of neutralization was investigated using an AMD collected from the abandoned antimony mine in Gachang, Taegu. Contents of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn in the AMD were higher than the criteria of river water quality or permissible waste water discharge. In the first phase, the AMD was neutralized to several % (25, 50, 75, 100, and 125) of $Fe(OH)_3$ equivalence point with solid $Ca(OH)_2$. In the second phase, the supernatant of the first phase neutralization was titrated to pH 7.5. After neutralization of the AMD to 100% of the $Fe(OH)_3$, equivalence point, most of Fe and Pb were removed but levels of As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Mn, and Zn were not reduced in the supernatant solution. In the second phase neutralization, levels of those toxic elements in the supernatants dropped below the wastewater discharge or river water quality criteria. This result suggests that the precipitate formed in the first phase of the neutralization process may be disposed without any special cares. Thus the two-phase neutralization scheme can reduce the cost of disposing precipitates containing toxic metals in comparison with the monophase neutralization scheme.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.212-219
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• 2009

Emission characteristics of air pollutants from three commercially operating cement kilns co-burning waste were investigated. The major heavy metals emitted were mercury (Hg), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and arsenic (As) Removal efficiency of the bag filter was above 98.5% for heavy metals (except Hg), and above 60% for Hg. Higher fractions of heavy metals entering the bag filter were speciated to cement kiln dust. On average, 3.3% of the -heavy metals of medium and low toxicity (Pb, Ni, and Cr) entering the bag filter were released into the atmosphere. Among highly toxic heavy metals, 0.14% of Cd, 0.01% of As, and 40% of Hg entering the bag filter were released into the atmosphere. In passing through the bag filter, the proportion of oxidized Hg in all cases increased. Emission variations of hazardous air pollutants in cement kilns tested were related to raw materials, fuel, waste feed and operating conditions. Volatile organic compounds detected in gas emissions were toluene, acrylonitrile benzene, styrene, 1,3-butadiene, and methylene chloride. Although hazardous air pollutants in emissions from cement kilns co-burning waste were within the existing emission limit, efforts are required to minimize their levels.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.76-80
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• 2015

Mobile phone has become one of the essential items in our daily life. In Korea, it is estimated that more than 20 million cell phones are discarded each year due to advancement in technology, thus creating disposal and environmental pollution. In order to conserve the resources, their proper recycling is essential as it contains both valuable and toxic metals. The economics of the recycling will depend on the amount and value of the metals. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the composition of the metals present in the different cell phones. In the present study, a report is presented on the variation of metal content per year of waste mobile phones. A review has been made for the mobile phones manufactured during the period 2000-2009 and metal content of the printed circuit boards (PCBs) by analyzing their metals. An example of the precious metal palladium and of the heavy metal lead shows the decreasing trend.