Significance• Caffeine and ibuprofen may negatively affect plant growth.

Caffeine and ibuprofen generally exist at concentrations below 1 ppm in surface waters but their concentrations are possibly higher in the biosolids that are applied to agricultural land.

•Crop plants with significantly lower Cr levels may negatively impact human and animal health.

Chromium is believed to enhance glucose metabolism in humans by enhancing insulin receptor sensitivity and increasing translocation of glucose transporter to the cell membrane.

Root Growth Results

ICP-OES Results

Mineral Accumulation of a Model Plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, After Exposure to Caffeine and Ibuprofen

Kyle Butzine and Dr. Catherine Chan

butzinekj29@uww.edu and chanc@uww.edu

University of Wisconsin – Whitewater

Introduction• High volume pharmaceuticals are excreted by humans and sometimes disposed through the sewer system.

•Terrestrial plants can be exposed to these pharmaceuticals through flooding and biosolid application.

•Preliminary results suggest two frequently used drugs, caffeine and ibuprofen, have negative effects on plant growth at 100 ppm and 10 ppm, respectively.

• We tested the synergistic effects of applying both caffeine and ibuprofen at the same time to a model land plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.

•We monitored the growth of Arabidopsis during drug exposure, and quantified mineral accumulation by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES).

•Our goal is to correlate phenotypic effects of drug exposure to differences in mineral accumulation.

Methods• Germinate seeds in standard plant agar media.

• Transplant seedlings into media with varying concentrations of caffeine and ibuprofen and monitor growth.

• Microwave digest dried plant tissue with a mixture of 50% nitric acid, 30% hydrogen peroxide, and 20% water.

Microwave Digestion Parameters

• Analyze samples for macro nutrients (Ca, Mg, Na, K, S, P) and micro nutrients (Al, B, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, V, Zn) by ICP-OES.

Wavelength Parameters for ICP-OES (nm)

Conclusion•Aluminum and Chromium levels significantly decrease when Arabidopsis are exposed to as low as 1 ppm caffeine + 1 ppm ibuprofen.

•Arabidopsis exposed to select pharmaceuticals may have altered physiology and mineral nutrient content, even when there is no observable phenotypic effects.

•Applying caffeine and ibuprofen simultaneously does not result in enhanced toxicity in Arabidopsis.

AcknowledgementsMerck/ AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program

University of Wisconsin Whitewater Undergraduate Research Program

College of Letters and Sciences, Dean Mary Pinkerton

Dr. John Ejnik

Figure 1 & Figure 2: Root growth after 24 hours of drug exposure. T0  indicates initial root length, and T24 indicates root length after 24 hours exposure to 10 ppm caffeine + 10 ppm ibuprofen. Plants exposed to caffeine and ibuprofen grew significantly less than control plants. Significant difference was calculated based on 95% confidence. 

StagePower

(W)Ramp Time

(Min) PSI Temp.Hold Time

(Min)1 1600 5:00 400 70 5:002 1600 5:00 400 100 5:003 1600 20:00 400 180 10:00

Mo 202.031

Zn 213.857

Co 228.616

Ni 231.604

Fe 238.204

Mn 257.61

Cr 267.716

Cu 324.752

Al 396.153

Sr 407.771

Ba 455.403

Mg 285.213

Ca 317.933

V 292.402

Na 589.592

K 766.49

Sr 180.669

P 213.617

B 249.772

Element Average Ratio +/- Standard ErrorAl 0.774 0.048B 0.636 0.265

Ba 1.761 1.279Co 3.446 2.121Cr 0.558 0.011Cu 0.859 0.084Fe 1.122 0.207Mn 0.928 0.281Mo 1.243 0.413Ni 1.365 0.566Sr 1.209 0.242V 0.793 0.426Zn 1.344 0.272

Element Average Ratio +/- Standard ErrorCa 1.291 0.159K 1.302 0.381

Mg 1.368 0.302Na 1.470 0.392P 1.698 0.489S 1.333 0.450

Control 10 ppm Caffeine + 10 ppm Ibuprofen

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 3: Elements that were significantly different between plants treated with various combinations of caffeine and ibuprofen and control plants. A ratio of 1 indicates no change in the accumulation of a particular mineral between treated and untreated plants. Aluminium and chromium were present at significantly lower concentrations in caffeine- and ibuprofen-treated plants. Significant difference was determined by Student’s t-test. (N=3,p<.05)

Table 1: The average ratio and standard error between untreated

plants and plants treated with 10 ppm caffeine + 10 ppm ibuprofen for

macro elements. No macro element concentrations were significantly different between untreated plants and treated plants. (N=3,p<.05)

Table 2: The average ratio and standard error between untreated plants and plants treated with 10 ppm caffeine + 10 ppm ibuprofen for microelements. Aluminum and chromium had significantly different concentrations between untreated plants and treated plants. (N=3,p<.05)

Table 1

Table 2

T0

T24T24

T0

Adapted from http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/chromium

Figure 1

1cm

1cm