Abstract
Increasing insufficiency of freshwater resources is driving many countries in arid and semi-arid regions to use low-quality water for agriculture and related activities. This wastewater may have some useful as well adverse effects on various parameters. In this regard, we design an experimental setup to investigate the impact of irrigation with industrial wastewater on the Praecitrullus fistulosus (Indian baby pumpkin) plant. For this purpose, Praecitrullus fistulous was cultivated in soil irrigated with different concentrations (i.e. 25, 50, 75, 100%) of industrial wastewater, while control contain 0% of wastewater. Before the treatment, physicochemical parameters (pH, TDS, EC, etc.) of industrial wastewater were analysed. It was observed that lower concentration/s of wastewater positively affects various morphological (no. of leaves, fruits etc.) and biochemical (Total protein, Flavonoids, Sugar/s content etc.) attributes in treated plants, whereas elevated concentration may hurt these parameters.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Introduction
In developing countries, effluent water generated by industries is associated with many diseases and shortened life expectancy compared to developed countries (WHO 2002). In Pakistan, only 10% of the wastewater is discharged after the proper treatment, while the rest of the water is discharged into the nearby water bodies without any treatment. On the other hand, increasing insufficiency of freshwater resources is driving to use of low-quality water for agriculture and related activities. In many aspects, this water is not useful for agriculture processes, because it may contain various toxic metals/compounds etc., although it may also have considerable amounts of N, P, K, Ca and other essential nutrients that may serve as a good fertilizer (Riordan 1983; Raman 2002; Saravanamoorthy 2007). Therefore, industrial effluents for irrigation have emerged as an important way of utilizing wastewater. Industrial effluents are considered a low-cost nutrient-rich water source and are used to increase agriculture production (Al-Gheethi 2018). On the other hand, the continued use of industrial wastewater for irrigation causes deterioration of soil as well as has damaging effects on crops and produced quality problems associated with health (Esmailiyan 2008; Munir and Ayadi 2004).
The wastewater may also have heavy metal contamination, and the absorption and accumulation of high concentrations of these heavy metals are considered a hazard to humans and animals feeding on these crops (Sunzid 2020; Adnan 2010). The accumulation of heavy metals in plant tissues might cause a reduction in physiological and biochemical activities, resulting in lower biomass and yield (Scoccianti 2006). Furthermore, these heavy metals enter into the food chain of humans and animals and cause health hazards (Chandran 2012).
Indian baby pumpkin (Praecitrullus fistulosus) locally called tinda is a herbaceous plant belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae (Tindall 1983; Tyagi 2012). Fruit and seeds of Indian baby pumpkin are used as food, fodder and used for medication for diabetes (Mukesh 2010). Its leaves are also used for maintaining blood pressure (Ciali 2006). The fruit is used as a cooked vegetable. Among the group of medicinal plants, the Indian baby pumpkin is an excellent plant having the configuration of all the essential nutrients best for health (Kirtikar 1998). Indian baby pumpkin is a rich source of carbohydrates, proteins, fibre and fats. It also contains copper, nickel, zinc, lead, cobalt, cadmium, iron, chromium, calcium and sodium contents in trace amounts (Hussain 2010; Holland 1991).
Due to enormous local as well as export market demand, Indian baby pumpkin is one of the highly cultivated vegetables in Pakistan.
Therefore, a study was designed to monitor the effect of industrial wastewater for the cultivation of Indian baby pumpkin (Praecitrullus fistulous) by mixing different concentrations of wastewater with freshwater to find the effects and usefulness of mixed wastewater for agriculture purposes.
Materials and methods
Indian baby pumpkin (Praecitrullus fistulosus) seeds were collected from a registered Hyderabad seed corporation company, in Hyderabad Pakistan. The experiments were conducted from March—October at the experimental field of the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (IBGE) in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) manner and experiments were repeated twice. After thirty days of germination, the plants were treated with different concentrations (25, 50, 75 and 100%) of industrial wastewater while the control have 0% of wastewater.
Physicochemical analysis of wastewater
TDS, E.C., salinity and pH were analysed by Orion 5 Star metre, total hardness, chlorides and alkalinity were analysed by titrimetric method, while total phosphate and nitrate analysed were analysed by Ascorbic acid and Brucine method, respectively (Kalsoom 2015).
Determination of chlorophyll a, b (Chl a, b), and carotenoids
Chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids were estimated by Hartmut and Lichtentaler (1983) method. 50 mg of leaf samples and 5 ml of acetone were taken in test tubes and marked according to the concentration of wastewater and keep this material in the refrigerator for 48 h. The absorption was monitored by Uv–Vis spectrophotometer at wavelength 662, 644 and 470 nm for chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids, respectively.
Extraction of biochemicals from shoots leaves and fruits
The different parts of the plant (leaves, shoots, and fruits) were completely dried at room temperature. The dried parts were crushed and taken into 70% methanol and centrifuged for 40 min at 6000 rpm. The supernatant was collected and stored at − 40 °C for further analysis.
Quantification of biomolecules
Total protein from the shoots, leaves and fruit extracts was analysed by Lowry’s (1951) method. Total sugar concentration was determined by Montgomery (1961) while reducing sugars were determined by Miller’s 1959 procedure. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were estimated by Yasoubi (2007), and Kim (2003) methods, respectively. Antioxidant activity was quantified by Prieto’s (1999) method.
Results and discussion
Physicochemical analysis of industrial wastewater
Before the study of the effects of wastewater on Praecitrullus fistulous, various parameters such as TDS, E.C salinity, pH, total hardness, chlorides and alkalinity were analysed in Table 1. According to the results, the TDS, salinity, total hardness, alkalinity, nitrates and phosphates of wastewater were found 1501, 393 800 and 250 mg/L, respectively, while chlorides 1.2 ppt, and E.C., 2346 (µS/cm) and pH was found 8.40–8.60. The results showed that this wastewater contained a sufficient amount of nitrates and phosphate which may be useful but the higher values of other parameters like salinity, TDS etc. indicate that the direct use of this water may have some adverse effect on soil and crops.
Metal analysis of industrial wastewater
The concentration of metals in industrial wastewater was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. This water contained various quantities of iron, zinc, copper, cobalt, nickel and chromium Table 2. These metals content may have some beneficial as well as adverse effects; therefore, the concentrated wastewater may not be used directly for agriculture. Especially chromium (VI) species can cause cancer and lung diseases.
Soil analysis
The elemental composition of the soil before and after treatment with wastewater was examined by EDX Figs. 1 and 2. The 100% wastewater has a pronounced effect on oxygen calcium, iron and carbon content, and these contents were found to be reduced while no such prominent effect was observed in other elements Table 3.
SEM analysis of soil
Figure 3 represents SEM images of the soil before and after treatment with wastewater. According to SEM analysis, soil particle size was decreased after treatment of 100% wastewater.
Morphological parameters
In the present study, the Indian baby pumpkin (Praecitrullus fistulous) was treated with different concentrations, i.e. lower 25%, moderate 50% and higher 75 and 100% of industrial wastewater and measured its effect on both morphological and biochemical parameters. These results were compared with the control, containing 0% of wastewater. It was observed that various concentrations have different effects on plant morphology and biochemistry. The morphological parameters such as of the number of leaves and fruits were affected negatively after the treatment with higher concentrations and fewer numbers of leaves and fruits were observed, although lower as well as moderate concentrations give a positive effect on these parameters. It was observed that there was no significant difference between control and treated plants, in terms of the number of leaves and fruits even the plant treated with lower concentration were found to have greater numbers of leaves and fruits than control plants. All these results are summarized in Figs. 4 and 5.
Biochemical parameters
Chlorophyll A, B and total carotenoids
Among different biochemical parameters firstly, chlorophyll a, b and carotenoid contents were analysed and compared with the control. The chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids concentrations were found 14.83, 7.3 and 2.83 mg/g in control plants while 20, 19.89 and 9.18 mg/g for 25%, 19.89, 7.19 and 4.35 mg/g for 50%, 15.28, 5.91 and 3.58 mg/g for 75%, and 7.13, 7.75 and 1.33 mg/g for 100% industrial wastewater-treated plants, respectively Fig. 6. It was observed that the concentration of the above parameter is inversely proportional to the wastewater concentration. The rise in concentration from 25 to 50, 75 and 100% may affect negatively these parameters. Although no such difference was observed in chlorophyll content with increasing concentration from 25 to 50% of wastewater. It showed a more pronounced effect for 75 and 100% of wastewater-treated plants.
Quantification of total protein content
Total protein contents were analysed in shoots, leaves and fruits. The total protein in shoots, leaves and fruits was found 1.17, 2.86 and 3.17 mg/ml, respectively. In comparison with the control, the 25% wastewater-treated plants showed a higher concentration of total protein contents in shoots (1.31 mg/ml), leaves (3.36 mg/ml) and fruits (3.83 mg/ml), while the total protein level declined with increasing the concentration of wastewater. Furthermore, it was also observed that fruits contain higher concentrations of total protein than leaves and shoots. These results are summarized in Fig. 7.
Quantification of total carbohydrates
Total carbohydrate concentration from the shoots, leaves and fruit extracts was determined by Montgomery’s (1961) method. The concentration of total carbohydrates in various parts of control plants, i.e. shoots, leaves and fruit extracts, was found to be: (2.21 mg/ml), (2.60 mg/ml) and (2.91 mg/ml), respectively. The elevation was observed in total carbohydrates content in shoots [25% (2.91 mg/ml), 50% (2.52 mg/ml)] even at 75% (2.24 mg/ml)] wastewater-treated plants, although these contents were found to have declined in 100% wastewater-treated plants. The total carbohydrate contents in fruits were found to be increased in 25% of treated plants, whereas these contents were decreased by increasing the concentration of wastewater. In leaves, the suppression of total carbohydrates contents was observed for all concentrations (25, 50, 75, 100%). These results are shown in Fig. 8.
Quantification of reducing sugar
All wastewater-treated plants of Indian baby pumpkin showed low concentrations of reducing sugar in leaves and fruits as compared to control plants’ leaves and fruits, in control plant these contents were found in shoots (0.34 mg/ml), leaves (1.46 mg/ml), fruits (1.73 mg/ml), while in 25% treated plants, shoots (1.37) mg/ml, leaves (1.34) mg/ml, fruits (1.53) mg/ml, 50% treated plants, shoots (0.92) mg/ml, leaves (1.23) mg/ml, fruits (1.48) mg/ml, 75% treated plants, shoots (0.86) mg/ml, leaves (0.46) mg/ml, fruits (0.83) mg/ml, and 100% showed lower concentration of reducing sugar than all treated plants, shoots (0.35) mg/ml, leaves (0.45) mg/ml and fruits (0.35) mg/ml, as shown in Fig. 9.
Total flavonoid contents
The total flavonoid contents in control plants, shoots (0.49 mg/ml), leaves (0.64 mg/ml), fruits (0.77 mg/ml), in 25% treated Indian baby plants, shoots (0.32 mg/ml), leaves (0.64 mg/ml) and fruit (0.77 mg/ml), 50% treated plants, shoots (0.37 mg/ml), leaves (0.37 mg/ml), fruits (0.63 mg/ml), 75% treated plants, shoots (0.19 mg/ml), leaves (0.23 mg/ml), fruits (0.44 mg/ml), and 100% treated plants, shoots (0.21 mg/ml), leaves (0.12 mg/ml) and fruits (0.24 mg/ml) are found in Fig. 10. It was observed that a lower concentration (25%) of wastewater gives a significant effect on flavonoid contents, especially in fruits and leaves although a decline was seen in the case of shoots, while these contents were suppressed in all other cases, i.e. 50, 75 and 100%.
Determination of total phenolics contents
In 25% wastewater-treated plants, the total phenolics were found in shoots (4.54 mg/ml), leaves (7.8 mg/ml) and fruits (8.56 mg/ml) while the control plants contained (4.16 mg/ml), (7.7 mg/ml) (8.36 mg/ml) in shoots, leaves and fruits, respectively. A slight elevation was observed in total phenolic contents in the case of 25% treated plants than control plants while it was a decline with the rise up concentration of wastewater Fig. 11.
Determination of antioxidant activity
The antioxidant activity of shoots, leaves and fruits was quantified by the Prieto et al. method. Among them, all the parts (shoots, leaves and fruit) showed excellent antioxidant activity, especially fruits obtained by the treatment of 25% wastewater give remarkable antioxidant activity and it was found higher than the control plants. This might be due to high flavonoid and total phenolic contents which are directly related to antioxidant activity. In 50% of wastewater-treated plants, only fruits showed good activity while in the case of shoots and leaves the activity was found to be lower than in control and 25% of wastewater-treated plants. The high concentration of wastewater (75, 100%) gives a negative impact on antioxidant activity on all parts of the plant (shoots, leaves and fruits) Fig. 12.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these experimental results unveiled the progressive effect of irrigation with treated industrial effluent on the growth and biochemical parameters of Indian Baby pumpkins without affecting the quality of various parts of plants. It was observed that the lower or moderate concentrations (25 and 50%) of wastewater give a positive response, while higher concentrations (75 and100%) of wastewater may give a negative effect on the plant growth as well as their biochemical parameters. These effects are directly concerned with the various parameters of wastewater described in the above sections. Therefore, it is of prime importance to emphasize that this statement must be limited to the chemical composition of the treated effluent used and to the Indian Baby pumpkin cultivars tested. Hence, it is recommended that only after proper treatment it can be used for irrigation purposes.
References
Adnan A, Taufeeq A, Malik E, Irfanullah MMK, Muhammad AK (2010) Evaluation of industrial and city effluent quality using physicochemical and biological parameters. Elec J Env Agricult Food Chem 9(5):931–939
Al-Gheethi AA, Efaq AN, Bala JD, Norli I, Abdel-Monem MO, Ab-Kadir MO (2018) Removal of pathogenic bacteria from sewage-treated effluent and biosolids for agricultural purposes. Appl Water Sci 8:74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-018-0698-6
Caili F, Huan S, Quanhong L (2006) A review on pharmacological activities and utilization technologies of pumpkin. Plant Foods Hum Nutr 61:73–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-006-0016-6
Chandran S, Niranjana V, Benny J (2012) Accumulation of heavy metals in wastewater irrigated crops in Madurai, India. J Environ Res Develop 6(3):432–438
Esmailiyan Y, Heidari M, Ghanbari A (2008) Effect of municipal wastewater with manure and chemical fertilizer on grain yield and yield components in Corn KoSc 704. J Agron 7:227–280. https://doi.org/10.3923/ja.2008.277.280
Hartmut K, Lichtenthaler ARW (1983) Determination of total Chlorophyll a and b of Leaf extract in different solvents. Biochem Soc Trans 11(5):591–592. https://doi.org/10.1042/bst0110591
Holland B, Unwin ID, Buss DH (1991) Vegetables, Herbs and Spices. The fifth supplement to McCance and Widdowson’s. The Composition of Foods, 4th edn. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK, p 163
Hussain J, Rehmaan NU, Khan AL, Hamayun M, Hussain SM, Shinwari ZK (2010) Proximate and essential nutrients evaluation of selected vegetable species from Kohat region Pakistan. Pak J Bot 42(4):2847–2855. https://doi.org/10.5897/JMPR11.478
Kalsoom S, Gachal GS, Memon SQ, Shaikh MY (2015) Evaluation of water quality and seasonal variation in aquatic environment of amphibians in District Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. J Entomol Zool Stud 3(2):305–309
Kim DO, Jeong SW, Lee CY (2003) Antioxidant capacity of phenolics, phytochemicals from various cultivars of plums. Food Chem 81(3):321–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0308-8146(02)00423-5
Kirtikar K.R, and Basu B.D (1998) A text book of Indian medicinal plant. 2nd Edition. India. pp 52–53
Lowry OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall RJ (1951) Protein measurement with the folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem 193:265–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9258(19)52451-6
Miller GL (1959) Use of dinitrosalicylic acid reagent for determination of reducing sugar. Anal Chem 31(3):426–428. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac60147a030
Montgomery R (1961) Further studies of the phenol sulphuric acid reagent for carbohydrates. Biochem Biophys Acta 48:591–593. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3002(61)90059-2
Mukesh Y, Shalini J, Radha T, Prasad G, Hariom Y (2010) Medicinal and biological potential of pumpkin: an updated review. Nutr Res Rev 23:184–190. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954422410000107
Munir JM, Ayadi M (2004) Forage yield and nutrient uptake as influenced by secondary treated wastewater. J Plant Nutr 27:351–356. https://doi.org/10.1081/PLN-120027659
Prieto P, Pineda M, Aguilar M (1999) Spectrophotometric quantification of antioxidant capacity through the formation of phosphomolybdenum complex, specific application to the determination of vitamin E. Anal Biochem 269(2):337–341. https://doi.org/10.1006/abio.1999.4019
Ramana S, Biswas AK, Kundu S, Saha JK, Yadava RBR (2002) Effect of distillery effluent on seed germination in some vegetable crops. Bioresour Technol 82:273–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-8524(01)00184-5
Riordan OEG, Dodd VA, Tunney H, Fleming GA (1983) The chemical composition of sewage sludges. Irish J Agri Res 25:239–249
Saravanmoorthy MD, Ranjitha KBD (2007) Effect of textile wastewater on morpho-physiology and yield on two varieties of peanut (Arachis hypogea L.). J Agric Technol 3:335–343
Scoccianti V, Cinelli R, Tirillini B, Mancinelli V, Speranza A (2006) Uptake and toxicity of Cr(III) in celery seedlings. Chemosphere 64:1695–1703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.01.005
Sunzid A, Salma A, Sharmin Z, Rumana AJ (2020) Beautiful B Use of natural biosorbent in removing dye, heavy metal and antibiotic-resistant bacteria from industrial wastewater. Appl Water Sci 10:107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-020-01200-8
Tindall HD (1983) Vegetable in the tropics. Macmillan Press Ltd., London, pp 365–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17223-8
Tyagi N, Sharma GN, Hooda V (2012) Medicinal value of Praecitrullus fistulosus. an overview. Int J Pharm and Therapy 3(2):136–142
WHO (2002) Water pollutants: biological agents, dissolved chemicals, Non–Dissolved Chemicals, Sediments, Heat, World Health Organization, CEHA, Amman, Jordan
Yasoubi P, Barzegar M, Sahari MA, Azizi MH (2007) Total phenolic contents and antioxidant activity of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peel extracts. J Agric Sci Technol 9:35–42
Acknowledgements
The authors are highly thankful to the University of Sindh, Jamshoro for conducting these experiments and scientific instrumentation.
Funding
The authors received no specific funding for this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
There is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Jamil, W., Chandio, N., Rafiq, M. et al. Improving industrial wastewater irrigation: the effects on Indian baby pumpkin (Praecitrullus fistulous) cultivation. Appl Water Sci 13, 217 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-023-02031-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-023-02031-z