Sincere thanks to Director, Centre Food Technology and Research Institute, Mysore and Head, Human Resource Development Division for providing the HPLC facility to carry out this work. Authors appreciate the help of Dr. G.S. Joseph, Scientist, CFTRI and Mr. Sampath Kumar, taxonomist, University of Mysore during the study. “
“Chromium is one of the toxic metals of wide spread use. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
has reported MLN8237 solubility dmso that Cr (VI) is carcinogenic to humans and in addition it can cause liver damage; pulmonary congestion and causes skin irritation resulting in ulcer formation. It is mostly used in many industries such as wood preservation, leather tanning, electroplating and steel productions.1 and 2 Phytoremediation is a promising cleanup technology for contaminated soils, groundwater and waste water that is both low-tech PF-06463922 molecular weight and low-cost. Alternanthera philoxeroides is one of the aquatic macrophytes which are commonly known as alligator weed. It coexists abundantly in natural habitat all over the world. Therefore it can be used as a convenient plant material for heavy metal toxicity investigations. 3 In many reports chromium has been demonstrated to induce the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radicals (FR) in plants such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) hydroxyl radicals ( OH) and superoxide
radicals (O2− ); either by direct electron transfer involving metal cations or as a consequence of metal mediated inhibition of
metabolic reactions. 4 Free radicals can cause oxidative damage to the biomolecules such as Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. 5 To avoid this kind of cellular damage, plants posses a complex system of antioxidative enzymes like catalase, peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase. Those play a major to tolerate the plants by scavenging ROS produced under heavy metal stress. 6 The present study was undertaken to examine Accumulation of Chromium and its Effects on Physiological and Biochemical Parameters of Alternanthera philoxeroides Seedlings under hydroponic systems. Alternanthera philoxeroides were collected and then washed several times in running tap water to wash out the soil particles from plants. Approximately same height and weights of plants were carefully selected and transferred into plastic container filled with full strength Hoagland Nutrient Solution for hydroponic settings. 7 The hydroponic system was set up in the Green House. After 12 days both the root and shoot lengths of hydroponically growing plants were determined and treated with Cr (potassium dichromate) in different concentrations 0; 25; 50; 100; 150 mg/l; while medium without these heavy metals served as control. The physiological and biochemical parameters were investigated after 12 days of Cr treatment. Both shoot and root lengths were measured before and after treatment of Cr in A. philoxeroides seedlings. The biomass was estimated by the measurement of shoot and root dry weight.