Onion (Allium Cepa L.) as a Test Plant

Abstract

Phytotesting has long been used to determine the quality of seeds, agricultural soil fertility, in biomedical research, and recently in the field of environmental protection to assess the ecological quality of natural environment (water, soil) in phytotesting of toxicants. Various plant representatives are used as model test organisms, in particular, onion (Allium cepa L.) is considered as a standard test plant for the determination of toxicants. The purpose of the work is to generalize methodological approaches of using onion (Allium cepa L.) in phytotesting of toxicants. Methodology. During the research, the following methods were used: 1) general scientific methods (methods of theoretical research of available information); 2) analytical and generalized methods (for the analysis of scientific and literature sources on the given problem); 3) empirical (for accumulating facts); 4) methods of argumentation (to prove one’s own judgments). Scientific novelty - methodical approaches of using onion in phytotesting of toxicants are summarized, formulas for calculating phytotoxic indices (root length index, phytotoxic effect of solutions, toxicity index of solutions for each test function, average toxicity index of the tested solutions) are presented. Conclusions - phytotesting is a commonly used method of assessing the quality of natural environment (water, soil) which is based on the sensitivity of plants to external chemical influences and is reflected in growth and morphological characteristics. The standard test plant for the determination of toxicant influence is the onion (Allium cepa), which can be used both in the growth test and in the Allium-test. The most sensitive characteristics of onion are the mitotic activity of the apical meristem cells and the frequency of cells with chromosomal aberrations.

Evaluation of the Toxicity of Wet Wipes Based on the Growth Test with Lepidium sativum L.

“…The calculated phytotoxicity indices and the interpretation of the bioassay results are given in Table 1. indexes were calculated, including the seed germination index (SGI) and the root length index (RLI) [8][9][10]. The toxicity scale given in the study in [9] was used.…”

“…On the 3rd day, germination energy was determined, and on the 5th day, germination and biometric and morphometric characteristics (root and above-ground part length) were determined [6]. The phytotoxic indexes were calculated, including the seed germination index (SGI) and the root length index (RLI) [8][9][10]. The toxicity scale given in the study in [9] was used.…”

“…The phytotoxic indexes were calculated, including the seed germination index (SGI) and the root length index (RLI) [8][9][10]. The toxicity scale given in the study in [9] was used.…”

Study of Phytotoxicity of Black Tea With Herbal and Fruit Supplements by Growth Test With Lepidium Sativum L.

“…Oral administration of a concentrated mixture of green tea polyphenols to mice potentiated the toxic effects caused by intraperitoneal administration of ebulin f. The obtained conclusions raise questions about the abuse of concentrated extracts of green tea as food antioxidant supplements, in particular, when using medical drugs affecting the gastrointestinal tract or taking toxic compounds (Rojo et al, 2020). It is known that a sensitive plant for toxicological experiments is Lepidium sativum L. (Khan et al, 2018;Bożym et al, 2021;Tkachuk & Zelena, 2023). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the phytotoxicity of black tea with herbal and fruit supplements by phytotesting with L. sativum.…”

“…The obtained results were processed statistically (the arithmetic mean, the error of the arithmetic mean, the significance of the differences of the arithmetic means were determined), as previously described (Tkachuk & Zelena, 2023).…”