Rice is a major food for the people of South and South East Asia. Arsenic contamination in the grain of rice is a worldwide concern.
How can we solve the problem?
1. Breeding of rice plants having limited arsenic uptake: Breeding of rice plants that are tolerant to arsenic and have a limited arsenic uptake could be one solution. For example a recent research by (Shaban et al. 2013) discovered low-arsenic rice in Bangladesh. Scientists identified an aromatic variety of rice that has far lower arsenic concentrations than found in non-aromatic rice. Their research results showed Sylheti rice to have a far lower arsenic concentration than similar types of rice from other regions of Bangladesh. Results also showed that the arsenic concentration in aromatic rice was 40% less than non-aromatic varieties.
2. Brown vs. white rice: According to a study carried out my Meharg et al. (2008) (based on rice samples collected from field, supermarket, pot trials), brown rice had a higher level of arsenic than white rice. Other study (Halder et al. 2012) reported that short-bold brown rice has higher arsenic concentration compared to other sizes of brown rice in the following orders: short bold> medium slender> long- slender. The study found that the average accumulation of arsenic in rice grain increases with a decrease of grain size.
3. RG thread on arsenic: We have extensively discussed this issues in another RG thread, see What are the measures to reduce human exposure to Arsenic?https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_measures_to_reduce_human_exposure_to_Arsenic/6
References
Shaban W. Al-Rmalli, Richard O. Jenkins, Michael J. Watts, Parvez I. Haris. 2012. Reducing human exposure to arsenic, and simultaneously increasing selenium and zinc intake, by substituting non-aromatic rice with aromatic rice in the diet. Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging, Volume 1, Number 4 / 2012 DOI: 10.3233/BSI-12002841.http://www.segh.net/articles/Reducing_human_exposure_to_arsenic_and_simultaneously_increasing_selenium_and_zinc_intake_substituting_non_aromatic_rice_with_aromatic_rice_in_the_diet/
Meharg, A.A., , Enzo Lombi, Paul N. Williams, Kirk G. Scheckel, Joerg Feldmann, Andrea Raab, Yongguan Zhu and Rafiql Islam. 2008.Speciation and Localization of Arsenic in White and Brown Rice Grains. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008, 42 (4): 1051–1057.http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es702212p
Halder, D., Subhamoy Bhowmick,,Ashis Biswas, Ujjal Mandal,Jerome Nriagu, Debendra Nath Guha Mazumdar,Debashis Chatterjee, and Prosun Bhattacharya. 2012. Consumption of Brown Rice: A Potential Pathway for Arsenic Exposure in Rural Bengal. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2012, 46, 4142−4148.http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es204298a
This paper may help with your query:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2004.01035.x/full
Torres-Escribano et al., (2008), found a higher inorganic arsenic concentration in brown rice compared with white rice, which indicate that part of the arsenic is attached to rice bran.
Narukawa et al. (2011), showed that the highest total arsenic and inorganic arsenic concentrations were found in unpolished brown rice and the total arsenic and inorganic arsenic concentrations decreased with the increasing degree of polishing.
Raab et al. (2009), rinse washing and a high volume of non-contaminated cooking water are effective in reducing the arsenic content of cooked rice, specifically the inorganic component.
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