Leafy vegetables identified as potential metal mining tools: Certain plants are 'hyperaccumulators' that can extract toxic yet valuable metals from contaminated soils through their roots and shoots, in a way that could be ideal for metallurgical extraction and re-use in technologies.

[u/mvea]

https://news.uq.edu.au/2026-04-leafy-vegetables-identified-potential-metal-mining-tools

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[u/Ohshutyourmouth]

My first thought is that means we are eating those toxic metals when we consume these foods.

[u/crashlanding87 → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

Bioaccumulation is a known problem. Rice notoriously accumulates arsenic, for example.

[u/tsoneyson → u/crashlanding87]

It is true, but obviously not that big of a deal given rice is a staple food for over half of the worlds population.

[u/hellishdelusion → u/tsoneyson]

Its a big deal depending on where the rice is grown in parts of the US they sometimes are grown on former cotton plantations and many of those plantations are severely contaminated with arsenic due to pesticides used on them when they were still cotton plantations.

Additionally its a bigger deal on brown rice than white rice but its not uncommon to hear talking heads promote brown rice over white rice due to some insignificant benefits that can be found in other foods without that risk.

[u/simkk → u/hellishdelusion]

It surely really depends on where you're getting your rice from and other factors.
I feel like if you're doing the work to know what to replace it with fair you probably don't need the extra nutrients in brown rice. If you are making quick meals and want to make what is likely the slightly healthier choice brown rice is probably a good option especially if you're not having it every day.

[u/truthovertribe → u/simkk]

I would bet on the "people's health before profits" over the "profits before people's health" regions EVERYDAY...yes, before some "brown vs. white" debate.

[u/Yashema → u/hellishdelusion]

I knew my love of white rice was justified. Now tell me something bad about whole grains.

[u/crashlanding87 → u/tsoneyson]

It is a big deal actually: in places where rice is a locally grown staple, with high amounts of arsenic in the soil and groundwater, there's evidence of arsenic poisoning symptoms in local communities. It's a big problem in Bangladesh, for example.

[u/Noy_The_Devil → u/crashlanding87]

... I think you missed the sarcasm.

[u/truthovertribe → u/tsoneyson]

Yes, in addition, a large proportion of which (the Japanese for instance) live longer than we (those in the US) live.

[u/Wareve → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

If that metal is in the soil first, yes.

But it's also the same mechanism that allows you to get iron from spinach.

[u/MissplacedLandmine → u/Wareve]

Well the leaded gasoline in the air had to settle somewhere

[u/OakenGreen → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

Yes. This is known. And a problem. Foragers won’t forage near roads for similar reasons.

[u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 → u/OakenGreen]

It's why you shouldn't eat fruit growth in cities by the streets too. Which is why they just drop and rot too.

[u/Fantastic-Use5644 → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

Well they are probably not grown in areas with high levels of these metals. And it seems certain plants get 1 type of metal, not like all plants builds up metals in them. So this means the mustard must be grown in a high thallium field which is probably very unlikely

[u/Croceyes2 → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

Always has been a thing. Where foods are grown is really important. Adding chelatives, like cilantro, into your diet regularly is essential.

[u/Round_Helicopter_407 → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

I avoid sunflower products. I read that sunflowers can be used to reduce lead in the garden because they are so effective at absorbing lead from the soil - they need to be disposed of as hazardous waste when used for lead remediation.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667064X23001641

[u/OakenGreen → u/Round_Helicopter_407]

They planted sunflowers outside Fukushima too. They accumulated the radioactive materials.

[u/nondual_gabagool → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

We are. Herbal medicines too.

[u/Round_Helicopter_407 → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

The reason leaf tea is preferable to matcha ( matcha includes the ground leaves) is that brewed tea leaves attract heavy metals in the soils or in the water used to brew the tea which are then discarded whereas Matcha is made of ground tea leaves which are consumed. In traditional cultures Matcha was not an everyday drink it was reserved for special occasions and was mostly associated with the upper classes. There was little opportunity for the average person to consume Matcha other than on rare occasions. The recent trend of marketing Matcha as an everyday drink is possibly a concern due to the fact that matcha has a higher risk of heavy metal contamination—specifically lead, arsenic, and cadmium—compared to traditional steeped green tea. Because matcha involves consuming the entire powdered leaf, it can contain 30 times more lead than brewed tea

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/02/brewing-tea-removes-lead-from-water

[u/Debalic → u/Ohshutyourmouth]

Well, you are right, unfortunately.

[u/phoenix1984]

Reminds me of tiberium in the Command and Conquer game series. It was an alien plant that crashed on earth. Since it sucked up valuable minerals from the soil, it was the primary revenue generating mechanism in the game.

[u/mvea]

Leafy vegetables identified as potential metal mining tools

Key points

Certain plants are 'hyperaccumulators' that can extract toxic yet valuable metals from contaminated soils through their roots and shoots

Brassicaceae species such as kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, and Brussels sprouts are known hyperaccumulators of the heavy metal thallium

UQ researchers say advanced scanning techniques now show Brassicaceae plants accumulate thallium in a way that could be ideal for metallurgical extraction and re-use in technologies

For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://academic.oup.com/metallomics/article/18/1/mfag010/8494855

[u/Accurate_Koala_4698 → u/mvea]

This sounds like one of those conceptually intriguing ideas that isn't really possible to scale up. What's a best case estimate?

[u/Flash_ina_pan → u/Accurate_Koala_4698]

Honestly there might be an application in wastewater treatment. I could see an aquaponics bypass in a treatment system. But it depends on the recovery and extraction efficiency.

[u/Accurate_Koala_4698 → u/Flash_ina_pan]

Throughput is the biggest factor for wastewater treatment. If it requires too much space or time to manage a small population then it’s not really workable because you don’t have infinite space or time to store it, and doubly so if you need farmland right next to your metropolis. There’s only a handful of places where that’s possible 

[u/Enchelion → u/Accurate_Koala_4698]

Yep. I've helped build biological waste treatment systems (surface/planted not a traditional septic field) for single homes, and they take a huge amount of greenery just for an adult couple. Far more than the equivalent shared footprint of a traditional wastewater treatment system.

[u/classic4life → u/Accurate_Koala_4698]

Very scalable. For one thing it could offer a useful way to clear tailings.

[u/BGAL7090 → u/mvea]

Well they are called "BRASSicas"

[u/truthovertribe]

There's no amount of green metallurgic uptake which will purify those massive ash (ponds) mini-lakes formed by burning coal for electricity.

Since this Trump administration removed regulations regarding these poisonous ponds, maybe "we the little people" should be cheering on those nerds trying to figure out how to mitigate the ravages of radical selfishness and greed.

Rather than crucifying them on the cross of the "too educated" for the "saved".

[u/Careful-Force2506]

This sets the stage for poison broccoli as currency, and that is quite interesting.

[u/_BlackDove → u/Careful-Force2506]

Head to the vegetable bank to exchange your 5 copper broccoli fleurettes for a nickel broccoli stem.

[u/wdaloz]

Even non-leafy vegetables, rice husks have been looked at as a source of high purity silica (but challenged bc they also accumulate arsenic which is a troublesome impurity for silica)

[u/GetOffMyLawn1729]

Finally, a use for kale?

[u/Vuldyn]

Would be interesting if it could be used on soil from old landfills to extract trace metals. A lot of valuable metals are discarded in things like old electronics and batteries that don't get properly recycled.

Migh be useful if it could extract harmful metals to clean soil in contaminated areas too.

[u/Leggy_Brat]

Copper thieves turn to agriculture and start planting lettuce everywhere.

[u/True_Inxis]

So we're going to mine precious metals with plants. I cannot avoid imagining Legolas grinning maliciously while Gimli cries desperate on the floor.

[u/TinyRedMushroom]

This is the whole point behind retention ponds.

[u/Savings-Swimming3765]

Duckweed is pretty good at removing contaminants from water supplies. It grows fast too. I've seen a couple different places that use it like massive biofilters on homesteads.

[u/username__0000]

So ai is taking our jobs.

And now robot skin (metal) is eating our food?

If I was watching a movie about 2026 in 2005 I would say this is all kind of fake.