Studies on Biochemical Role of Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Safflower

ABSTRACT

Phytoremediation is the biotechnological application of plants to detoxify pollutants, and is a modern technique for environmental clean-up. Plants are ideal agents for soil and water remediation because of their unique genetic, biochemical and physiological features. Thus, the accumulation of mercury and Selenium was estimated in the roots, mature leaves and seeds of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L), grown hydroponically in 10^.4 M solution for both phenyl mercuric acetate and selenium-dioxide for eight days. The tolerance was quantified followed by categorizing as: categorized tolerant, partially tolerant and non-tolerant, employing the Response Coefficient parameter. Fifteen accessions as five each for tolerant, partially tolerant and non-tolerant were used for estimating the accumulation of various pollutants in roots, mature leaves and seeds. Conclusively, the present study provides new insights into products can be extracted with negligible concentration of mercury and selenium occurring in aerial parts of this economically and nutraceutically significant plant.