International Journal of Chemistry Studies

Authors
Seema, Ravi Kumar Rana, Manoj Kumar, Honey Yadav

Abstract
Plants that accumulate the heavy metals are the best subjects to study the mechanisms of deleterious effects of toxic metals in the plant kingdom. Indian mustard (Brassica junicea) is found to accumulate moderate level of heavy metals like Cadmium, Lead, Nickel, Chromium etc. In this research article, 6 different concentration of cadmium (0μM, 200μM, 400μM, 600μM, 800μM, 1000μM) treatment were imposed in cv. Pusa Vijay (NPJ-93) as cadmium nitrate [Cd (NO3)2] in plant tissue culture medium. The negative effect of different cadmium nitrate concentration on seed germination, seedling growth parameters and antioxidant enzymes activity of Indian mustard cv. Pusa Vijay (NPJ-93) after 15 days of incubation was observed. Results showed that cadmium adversely affected the seed germination and change in antioxidant enzyme activities. The effective concentration of cadmium caused 6.0% inhibition of seed germination. The root and shoot growth of mustard seedlings were also negatively affected with increasing concentrations of cadmium nitrate. Cadmium treated plants showed increased activities of antioxidant enzymes like APX, CAT, SOD and GR.