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Assessment of chromium hyper-accumulative behaviour using biochemical analytical techniques of greenhouse cultivated Sonchus asper on tannery waste dump site soils

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Abstract

Keeping the sources of pollution such as chromium (Cr) under a safe limit is a daunting challenge due to the negative impact of heavy metal bioaccumulation in vegetation and the concomitant human health exposure. We took a closer look at Sonchus asper by cultivating in the green house. It resulted in 80% germination when cultivated over nine different soils collected from the tannery dump site. The biochemical analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry indicated significant bioaccumulation of Cr in the plant tissue. As per the ICP-MS analysis, this annual herb resulted in the accumulation of 601 mg kg−1 of total Cr with 212 mg kg−1 in its shoot from soil samples containing up to 41 mg kg−1 of hexavalent Cr. The energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy of S. asper revealed a higher level of S element indicating a sulfate-Cr binding relation. Elevated content of Cr in soil (73,721 ± 65 mg kg−1) caused biochemical changes in the shoot of S. asper as indicated by the disappearance of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) bands at 935 and 872 cm−1 and further revealing aliphatic –CH2 appearing as anti-symmetry νa(CH2) and symmetric vibration νs(CH2) at the band of 2920 and 2850 cm−1, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank Division Office, Research and Innovation Centre, NBERC UniSA for financial support and Dr. Binoy Sarkar, Future Industries Institute for providing FTIR analysis techniques.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural and Built Environments Research Centre, Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia

    Ramkrishna Nirola, Rupak Aryal & Christopher Saint

  2. Future Industries Institute, Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia

    Bhabananda Biswas

  3. Global Centre for Environmental Research (GCER), TheUniversity of Newcastle, ATC Building, Callaghan, Newcastle, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Mallavarapu Megharaj & Palanisami Thavamani

  4. Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Avudainayagam Subramanian

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  1. Ramkrishna Nirola
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  2. Bhabananda Biswas
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  3. Mallavarapu Megharaj
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  4. Avudainayagam Subramanian
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  5. Palanisami Thavamani
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  6. Rupak Aryal
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  7. Christopher Saint
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Correspondence to Ramkrishna Nirola.

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Responsible editor: Elena Maestri

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Nirola, R., Biswas, B., Megharaj, M. et al. Assessment of chromium hyper-accumulative behaviour using biochemical analytical techniques of greenhouse cultivated Sonchus asper on tannery waste dump site soils. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 26992–26999 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2740-5

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