In the present study light and scanning electron microscopic approaches were used to study the palynological variations among 30 Asteroideae members. Variety of qualitative and quantitative palynological characters like pollen shape and type, pollen sculpturing, pollen size, P/E ratio, exine and intine thickness, interspecific difference, colpi size, pore size, spines length, spine width, and pollen fertility were observed. Results reported remarkable variations among pollen characters of studied taxa. The shape of pollen grains in polar and equatorial views varied from specie to specie such as spheroidal, prolate, oblate, subspheroidal, oblate spheroidal, prolate spheroidal, suboblate, and sub prolate. Bidens pilosa L. showed maximum pollen size in both polar and equatorial views, whereas minimum pollen size in polar view was found in Tetraneuris scaposa (DC.) Greene. (i.e., 30.5 μm) and in equatorial view was found in Cosmos sulphureus Cav. (25.5 μm).The highest P/E ratio (1.39 μm) was measured in Glebionis coronaria L. The values of exine and intine thickness also varied. Tricolporate, tetracolporate, trizonocolporate, pentoporate, and polypentoporate pollen types were examined. Spinateand echinate pollen sculpturingobserved under SEM. Variations in spine length and width also recorded. The maximum pollen fertility (98%) was measured in Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat. and the lowest (56%) was recorded in Thymophylla tenuiloba (DC.) Small. It was concluded that the variations in qualitative and quantitative characters were seemed to be valuable for the taxonomic investigations of Asteroideae taxa.

Leather tanning industry is the third largest export earning industry of Pakistan. Kasur is second largest leather producing city in Punjab. It is among Pakistan's most contaminated cities due to discharge of highly toxic industrial effluent into open fields. This study aims to identify the level of toxicity of the soil in terms of heavy metals in different parts of Kasur city. Seventy (70) soil samples were collected from seven different locations including city centre, evacuated ponds and agriculture fields being fed with the recycled water from the wastewater treatment plant.In this study, the presence of three heavy metals, that is, Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn) and Nickel (Ni) were measured by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The overall mean value of these metals (Cr 3.859 ± 0.510 mg/Kg, Mn 0.5243 ± 0.0691 mg/Kg and Ni 0.4759 ± 0.0318 mg/Kg, respectively) in Kasur was found higher as compared to control samples (Cr 0.2622 ± 0.033 mg/Kg, Mn 0.1701 ± 0.016 mg/Kg and Ni 0.1817 ± 0.021 mg/Kg, respectively). The results reflect that the areas which are in contact with tannery effluents have high levels of Cr, Mn and Ni as compared to other sites and control samples. It was seen that majority of the city population is facing diseases associated with drinking water, soil and air pollution caused by tanning industry.

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Arsenic contamination of drinking water has become a major health concern all over the world. Pakistan is also facing an arsenic contamination in drinking water. The present study determine the correlation of arsenic level in drinking water and blood sample of females of District Sheikhupura, Pakistan. The study area for the present research work is District Sheikhupura, which is an industrial as well as an agricultural city in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The arsenic concentration in drinking water from different sources used by the inhabitants and blood samples of females was measured by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The drinking water of tehsils Sheikhupura and Sharaqpur had higher arsenic as compared to other tehsils (64.25 ± 2.55 μg L-1 and 61.63 ± 2.73 μg L-1) respectively, and was highest in all hands pumping water (71.14 ± 2.6μg L-1). Mean arsenic concentration in blood samples was highest in the age group of 23-25 years (3.2 ± 0.23 μg L-1) and being highest among respondents of tehsil Sheikhupura. A positive correlation between drinking water and blood samples when analyzed with respect to area and drinking water sources was found. Evidences suggest that the presence of arsenic in drinking water is likely to affect general metabolism and its accumulation in human. This appears to be linked with exposure of varying magnitude and duration.