Nutritional and toxicological evaluation of wheat grown on soils with or without fly ash treatment

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Fly ash disposal has recently posed a huge environmental problem due to storage, apart from apprehension about possible contamination of soil, crop produce and ground water with toxic trace and heavy metal and radio nuclides. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate nutritional and toxicological aspects of wheat grown on soils treated with fly ash. Wheat was grown on soils with fly ash (200 t ha −1 ) and without fly ash at two different geographical locations in India. One kilogram each of 36 samples randomly collected from three replicates of wheat grown with and without fly ash were subjected to various analytical techniques to determine the nutrient composition, mineral, trace element and heavy metal content. Furthermore, wheat grown on soils treated with fly ash was also incorporated into the diet at 90% level, fed as a feed for 26 weeks to Wistar/NIN rats for protein and toxicological evaluation.

Physicochemical characteristics and proximate composition of wheat cultivars from the Canary Islands

“…All wheat cultivars analysed showed an ash content inside the interval 1.40% and 1.88%, which values were obtained for Vitrón and Español cultivars, respectively. Ash mean content obtained in this paper is in agreement with data reported in the literature (RANDHAWA et al, 2002;SERENA & KNUDSEN, 2007;KANDLAKUNTA et al, 2009;HAGER et al, 2012;ANDERSSON et al, 2013). The fat concentration varied between 0.73% and 1.41% obtained in De la tierra and Vitrón cultivars, respectively.…”

“…The fat concentration varied between 0.73% and 1.41% obtained in De la tierra and Vitrón cultivars, respectively. The fat content found by us was lower than the data published by most authors (SIKA et al, 1995;RANHOTRA et al, 1996;KANDLAKUNTA et al, 2009;DI SILVESTRO et al, 2012;HAGER et al, 2012;ANDERSSON et al, 2013), although similar to those reported by RAGAEE and co-workers (2006). Total phenolic concentrations were fairly constant among the cultivars considered.…”

“…The lowest acidity was found in Raspinegro Canario cultivar (0.13 g/100 g), in contrast with Marrueco and Español cultivars, which had an acidity of 0.21 g/100 g. Carbohydrates represent the more abundant nutrient in wheat grain, ranging between 80.8% and 85.7% for Colorado and Isla de Fuerteventura cultivars, respectively. The mean protein concentration in all cultivars was 14.2%, which agrees with most of the data published in the literature (SIKA et al, 1995;RANHOTRA et al, 1996;RANDHAWA et al, 2002;RAGAEE et al, 2006RAGAEE et al, , 2012KANDLAKUNTA et al, 2009;DI SILVESTRO et al, 2012;ANDERSSON et al, 2013). Colorado cultivar had the highest protein content (16.2%), in contrast with Vitrón cultivar (11.7%), which presented the lowest protein percentage.…”

“…Dietary fi bre concentration varied between 15.2% obtained in Arisnegro velloso de grano blanco and above 20% in the Jallado, De la tierra, Raposo, and Español cultivars. The content of fi bre was similar to data showed by DI SILVESTRO and co-workers (2012), slightly higher than those reported by RAGAEE and co-workers (2012) and ANDERSSON and co-workers (2013), and considerably higher than other values found in the literature (RANHOTRA et al, 1996;KANDLAKUNTA et al, 2009). These differences in dietary fi bre could be due to the different composition of non-starchy carbohydrates as well as the formation of resistant starch.…”

An appraisal of the potential use of fly ash for reclaiming coal mine spoil

“…Because most of the FAs from India are alkaline in nature (Mishra and Shukla, 1986a, b), leaching of toxic constituents is less of a concern when they are being used in agriculture and silviculture (Khanra et al, 1998;Ram et al, 1999bRam et al, , 2000Ram et al, , 2007aKhan et al, 2000;Mukherjee and Zevenhoven, 2006). Kandlakuntha et al (2009) found no adverse effects on haematological, biochemical or histopathological parameters when rats were fed wheat grown on fly ash. They concluded that wheat grown on FA-treated soils may be safe for human consumption.…”