Correlation between heavy metal ions (copper, zinc, lead) concentrations and root length of Allium cepa L. in polluted river water

• Autor(a) principal: Palacio,Soraya Moreno
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Espinoza-Quiñones,Fernando Rodolfo, Galante,Raquel Manozzo, Zenatti,Dilcemara Cristina, Seolatto,Araceli Aparecida, Lorenz,Evandro Kleber, Zacarkim,Carlos Eduardo, Rossi,Nickeli, Rizzutto,Márcia de Almeida, Tabacniks,Manfredo Harri
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-89132005000400024
• topic: Acute toxicity; bioassay; copper; zinc; lead; Allium cepa L

The present work was performed using the common onion (Allium cepa L.) as a bioindicator of toxicity of heavy metals in river water. The test waters were collected at two sampling sites: at the beginning and the end of the Toledo River. The bulbs of A. cepa L. were grown in test water with nine concentration levels of copper, zinc and lead from 0.1 to 50 ppm. In the laboratory, the influence of these test liquids on the root growth was examined during five days. For test liquids containing below 0.03-ppm dissolved Cu the root growth was reduced by 40% However, the same reduction occurred for 1-ppm dissolved Zn. For dissolved Pb, results reveal toxicity above 0.1 and 0.6 ppm at the beginning and the end of the Toledo river water, respectively.