Growth and photochemical responses of three crop species treated with textile azo dyes

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the impact of textile dye on the early seedling stage of 3 crops: barley, maize, and wheat. Seeds were imbibed in diff erent concentrations of textile dye for 12 h and were then grown in a controlled growth room for 8 days with a related dye solution. Some growth and polyphasic chlorophyll fl uorescence parameters were measured and analysed to appraise the effect of textile dye on the 3 crops. Although diff erent crop species showed diff erences in response to diff erent concentrations, textile dye generally aff ected almost all radicle growth parameters more adversely than coleoptile growth parameters. While photosynthetic performance indexes of wheat increased significantly in all textile dye treatments, those same parameters in barley strongly decreased in all concentrations. While performance indexes of maize increased up to 250 ppm, indexes decreased with the highest dye concentration. Analysis of polyphasic chlorophyll fl uorescence and growth parameters allowed for the separation of wheat, which exhibited a better performance than the other crops under textile dye treatment. The results point out that the impact of textile dye is dependent on its concentration and that it is crop-specific. In addition, textile dye may not be detrimental for these 3 crops.