Program financed by: Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS – UEFISCDI, within PNCDI III
Program PN III: Program 1 - Development of the National System of Research and Development
Subprogram name: Subprogram 1.1 - Human Resources
Project type: Postdoctoral Research Projects
Project title: Assessing the influence of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on physiological characteristics and secondary metabolites in autochthonous vegetables
Acronym: NSAIDs-PLANTS-STRESS
Project duration: 24 months (02.05.2018 – 30.04.2020)
Contract number: 12/2018
Contract value: 250.000,00 lei
Contracting authority: Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI, http://uefiscdi.gov.ro/)
Contractor: National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies Cluj-Napoca, Romania (INCDTIM, www.itim-cj.ro)
Summary of the project:
In the recent years, the presence of pharmaceutical products (emerging contaminants) in environment represents the most important environmental concern at world level. Among these environmental contaminants are included the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs – NSAIDs, the most relevant therapeutic classes for their analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory properties. The influence of environmental stress factors on both crop and wild plants of nutritional value represents a very important research topic, and understanding the effects of NSAIDs on plant physiological activity and structural modification is limited, especially at environmentally relevant concentrations. Thus, to gain insight into influences of different NSAIDs on plant performance and identify the most promising traits for fast assessment of toxicity, in the present project it is aimed to study the impact of different NSAIDs on performance of the autochthonous green leafy vegetables in the context of monitoring both certain vegetables leaf parameters and the accumulation/contamination level. The proposed objectives of the present project will be achieved by investigating the influence of different NSAIDs on foliage photosynthetic characteristics, monitoring the emission of volatile organic compounds, evaluation of the vegetables leaf anatomy, quantitative evaluation of the photosynthetic pigments, polyphenolic compounds, vitamin C, determination of the antioxidant capacity, and determination of the NSAIDs content accumulated in the vegetables, and soil respectively. Thus, the present project will contribute with information for a better understanding of the adverse effects of these drugs on the environment and awareness a responsible consumption of drugs.
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