GROWTH AND ANATOMICAL RESPONSES OF ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS (L.) MOENCH AS INFLUENCED BY DETERGENT EFFLUENT

Abstract

Background: Considering the growing focus on sustainable agriculture and worries about the detrimental impact of widespread industrial (detergent) effluent use on plant growth. Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench growth and anatomical response were studied.

Methodology: The plants were grown on soil that was not contaminated (0%) and soil that had been exposed to various effluent treatments (5, 10, 15, 20, and 25%). The data generated were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results: The growth of the plants was found to be negatively impacted by the effluent though at 5% concentration growth and anatomical characters were enhanced. The result of the study showed that at 5% effluent concentrations, the plant height are of same value with the control plants after 14 weeks of planting (33.41±2.67), while stem girth and number of leaves (6.47±0.39 and 6.66±0.54 respectively) were comparatively higher than on control plants (5.09±0.28 and 5.83±0.44 respectively), for fresh and dry weight of shoot and root, plants treated with effluent concentration of 15%, 20% and 25% were the most affected when compared with the control plants. This indicates that plants treated with effluent concentration above 5% were largely affected.

Conclusion: The effluent has an impact on the anatomical structures of the plants, according to the anatomical analysis of the plants treated with effluent concentration. On both the adaxial and abaxial surfaces, there were noticeably fewer epidermal cells as the concentration increased. This study found that detergent effluent, particularly at higher concentrations of 15% and 25%, had a substantial negative impact on the growth and anatomical structure of okra while at lowest (5%) concentration of the effluent displayed a positive impact on growth and anatomical responses of the okra plant. Thus, at low concentrations, industrial effluent can be non-toxic to plant growth.