Study of Effect of Sugar Mill Effluent on Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) Varieties

Abstract

The present study has been carried out to assess the water quality parameters of sugar mill effluent and their effect on plant growth and biochemical constituents of Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) varieties (Kasuri) and (Pusa Bold). The physico-chemical parameters included colour, odour, pH, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), total solids (TS), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total hardness (TH), total alkalinity (TA) and chloride (Cl -). In the pot culture experiment, fenugreek plants were grown up to 21 days, in the soil irrigated with different concentration of sugar mill effluent like viz. (control, 0.5%, 1.0%, 5.0% and 10.0%) to investigate their effect on plant growth parameters such as germination percentage, seedling vigour, plant length, fresh weight and dry weight and pigments such as chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, total chlorophyll and carotenoid. The higher sugar mill effluent dilutions (above 5%) were found to affect initial growth parameters and decreased biochemical contents, but at lower dilutions (up to 5%) favoured initial plant growth of both the plant varieties.