Abstract
•Tomato and eggplant fruits developed in HMs contaminated soil exhibited alarming concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Co, and Zn.•S. lycopersicum and S. melongena showed compartment individual roles in bioconcentration and translocation of HMs.•Heavy meals stress negatively affected the content of photosynthetic pigments.•For prevention of ROS injury, tomato and eggplant plants generate defense system via increasing of SOD, CAT and GPX activities.
Response of Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum melongena to different HMs concentration in various types of soil matrix has been studied in greenhouse experiments over the course of 11 months. Nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) concentrations in examined soils have been founded within the permissible value for agricultural soil prescribed by FAO. Cadmium has been founded to be the most extractable metal from soil matrix with percent soil remediation reached to 66% and 60% for S. lycopersicum and S. melongena, respectively. Cadmium and nickel presented with higher concentrations in roots than in other parts of tomato and eggplant. Metals Cu, Ni, Co, Zn, and Cd have been recorded in tomato and eggplant fruits with a concentration far exceed the internationally permitted concentrations, and their concentrations have been founded to be correlated with increasing their concentrations in soil matrix. Metals Zn, Ni, and Cu have been showed a lower Bioconcentration factor (BCF) values than Cd and Co, however, they have been showed higher translocation factor for shoot (TFS) and translocation factor for fruit (TFF) values. The observed decrease in yield components of tomato and eggplant under HMs stress was in line with reduction in photosynthetic pigment content and stimulation of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX). The present study was carried out to examine the biocompatibility of S. lycopersicum and S. melongena grown in different soil types contaminated with HMs for human consumption.