The Growth of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Ife Brown (Leguminosae) in a Cement Site Rich in Heavy Metals

Abstract

Seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Ife Brown sown in the site at close proximity to a cement factory (polluted), produced sprawling plants with their life span shortened by 28 days, a low pod yield, few and small sized seeds. The time of flower initiation, pod formation to pod ripening was markedly reduced. These plants accumulated a significantly high (17.01 micromol mol(-1)) concentration of aluminium (a constituent of cement) in the leaves and copper (13.68 micromol mol(-1)) in the seeds. Furthermore, the plants showed a low uptake of iron (a prominent constituent of cement) from the iron-rich polluted site. The heavy metals present in cement dust also induced a deficiency in phosphorus, magnesium and ammonia; and synergistically attracted the presence of other heavy metals such as zinc, copper, lead, nickel, chromium, silver and cadmium in significantly high quantities (p = 0.05).

Study of Morphological and Germination Parameters of Legume Crops Vigna Mungo L. Treated with Cement Dust

“…Similarly, the highest root length and shoot length were observed in (unpolluted) control plants than the polluted (treatment) ones. Similar growth reduction results were reported in various crops such as Hibiscus abelmoschus Cajanus cajan (Prasad et al, 1991) and sun hemp (Uma et al, 1994), Vigna mungo and Vigna faba (Kaushik, 1996); Triticum sativum and Betal vulgaris (Singh et al, 2003(Singh et al, , 2005; some plants (Ademilua and Umebese, 2007) and groundnut due to the addition of cement dust. `…”

Cement dust pollution induces toxicity or deficiency of some essential elements in wild plants growing around a cement factory

“…Cement dust falling on soil causes a shift in pH to alkaline side and a reduction in quality of soils (Bayhan et al, 2002; Iqbal and Shafug, 2001). In addition, the atmosphere polluted by cement factories has been known to include high levels of heavy metals such as fluoride, magnesium, lead, cadmium, nickel zinc, copper and beryllium (Ade-Ademilua and Umebese, 2007; Isikli et al, 2006). The heavy metals present in the cement dust play an important role in disturbing the various metabolic processes in plants (Borka, 1986) and thus lead to detrimental effects on the growth and development of plants (Abdullah and Iqbal, 1991; Gupta and Mishra, 1994; Iqbal and Shafug, 2001; Prasad and Inamdar, 1990; Uysal et al, 2003).…”

Assessment of environmental impacts of Rabak cement factory on vegetation and soil by cement dust

“…Soil surrounding cement factories, especially downward areas, exhibit elevated pH levels. The soil compositions usually affect vegetative growth [13]. The soil chemical properties are very important parameters in monitoring environmental pollution.…”