Heavy metal toxicity: industrial effluent effect on groundnut(arachis hypogaea l.) seedlings

Abstract

Heavy metals are important environmental pollutants and their toxicity is a problem of increasing significance for ecological, evolutionary, and environmental reasons. Arachis hypogaea was grown in pots for a period of 30 days where the soils were treated with different effluent concentrations (25, 50, 75 and 100%) collected near an industrial area and a control was carried out. The distribution of heavy metals in the soils and corresponding accumulations in the experimental crop was investigated on different experimental days 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30th day. The metals Cr, Cu, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Pb, Cd and Zn in plants and soil samples were analyzed by AAS technique. In Arachis hypogaea plants Fe was high in 100% effluent at 10, 15, 20, 25th days. It has been observed that at 25% effluent concentration, there is growth in the root length, an increase in shoot length, germination percentage, Chl a, chl b, total chlorophyll content in Arachis hypogaea L. chlorophyll content have increased upto the 20th day (2.929, 1.607, 4.536 mg/g.fw) and then decreased from 25th day (1.670, 0.832, 2.149 mg/g. fw) onwards