Theoretical molecular descriptors relevant to the uptake of persistent organic pollutants from soil by zucchini. A QSAR study.

The uptake of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from soil by plants allows the development of phytoremediation protocols to rehabilitate contaminated areas. The use of diverse theoretical descriptors has been reported in the literature for developing quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for predicting the bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of POPs in different plants. In this paper an evaluation is given on the molecular properties of POPs in terms of theoretical molecular descriptors that are relevant to the uptake and accumulation of these persistent pollutants from soil by two zucchini varieties.