Unraveling the effects of cadmium on growth, physiology and associated health risks of leafy vegetables
- PDF / 948,883 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 56 Downloads / 194 Views
BIOCHEMISTRY & PHYSIOLOGY - ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Unraveling the effects of cadmium on growth, physiology and associated health risks of leafy vegetables Junaid Latif1,2 · Javaid Akhtar1 · Iftikhar Ahmad3 · Muhammad Mahmood‑ur‑Rehman4 · Ghulam Mustafa Shah3 · Qamaruz Zaman5 · Tariq Javaid6 · Zia Ur Rahman Farooqi1 · Muhammad Shakar7 · Azka Saleem8,9 · Muhammad Rizwan10 Received: 25 March 2020 / Revised: 22 July 2020 / Accepted: 10 September 2020 / Published online: 6 October 2020 © Botanical Society of Sao Paulo 2020
Abstract Vegetables are a common and important source of food and nutrition but the increasing concentration of cadmium (Cd) in the food chain via wastewater–soil–vegetable continuum is posing a threat to their growth as well as human life. This study aimed at determining the effects of variation in duration of plant exposure to different dosages of Cd on growth, physiology and potential health risks of three commonly grown leafy vegetables, viz. spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) and coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.). The experiment was a 5 × 3 factorial containing five doses (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 mg Cd kg−1 soil) and three (25, 50 and 75 day) durations of plant exposure. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. It was found that plant height, root length, leaf area and biomass were significantly affected by increasing Cd concentration up to 40 mg kg−1 for all the vegetables. Furthermore, Cd treatments significantly affected the photosynthetic and biochemical attributes such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids and total chlorophylls at various growth stages of vegetables tested in comparison with their respective controls. Accumulation of Cd in all the leafy vegetables, its daily intake via vegetable consumption and health risk index were significantly increased with the increase in Cd concentration. The highest values of these parameters were found at 40 mg Cd kg−1 soil. It could be concluded that duration of exposure and Cd dose were very important in determining Cd toxicity, which are reflected in drastic reduction in vegetable growth and physiology. Moreover, the consumption of such vegetables would have toxic effects on human health. Keywords Coriander · Ecotoxicology · Fenugreek · Heavy metals · Photosynthetic pigment · Spinach
* Iftikhar Ahmad [email protected]; [email protected]
5
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan
* Ghulam Mustafa Shah [email protected]; [email protected]
6
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan
7
Directorate of Soil Fertility and Soil Testing Institute Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
1
Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan
8
College of Natural Resocures and Environment, Northwest A&F Univeristy, Yangling 712100, China
Department of Bioinformatics
Data Loading...
