To Assess the Impact of Heavy Metals on Seed Germination in the Raphanus sativus Pusa Himani Variety under Laboratory Conditions

Cultivators adjacent to industries irrigate their crops with polluted water from factories. This has resulted in a colossal damage to their crops. Rivers and soils have been polluted by heavy metals, produced due to industrial, agricultural and domestic waste. These heavy metals are toxic to crop plants. Heavy metals are hazardous pollutants as they are toxic, often accumulated and even biomagnified by plant parts including seeds. I used five concentrations (10, 50, 100, 200 and 500 ppm) of five different heavy metals viz Cu, Cd, Pb, Ni and Zn, (and control) in the present investigation, determining their toxicity effect on seed germination of Raphanus sativus variety Pusa himani. Raphanus sativus L. belonging to the family brassicaceae is a very popular root crop grown throughout India and is commonly known as muli. Pusa himani is a European or temperate variety of Raphanus sativus (radish). The best characteristic of this variety is the root formation even at 112 degree F temperature. It matures in 30 - 35 days. On the 11th day of the present research work, a number of seeds which showed germination were recorded. The average values of triplicate experiments were tabulated. The seed germination in Raphanus sativus variety Pusa himani was badly affected by the application of heavy metals. At 10 ppm concentration nickel (Ni) showed the same seed germination as in control that is 95% but it decreased to 93% (copper), 80% (cadmium), 85% (Lead), and 90% (Zinc) by the application of other heavy mheavyetals at this concentration over control. The sequence of heavy metal hazardousness towards germination of seeds was found to be Cd > Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni. The various treatments differed significantly among themselves and also with control.