Abstract
Sewage water is causing a potential threat to agriculture sector due to industrial effluents having heavy metals. Present investigation was carried to study the role of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or aqueous extracts of Hyacinth and Hedychium on soil quality and growth of spinach and turnip plants irrigated with sewage water (SW). Treatment of plants with SW resulted in an increment of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities. However, EDTA or plant extracts further enhanced their activities. At both stages of development of the tested crops, a substantial increase was found in the content of proline and total phenols, indicating the strengthening of the antioxidant protection mechanism to boost the oxidative effects of SW stress. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) studies revealed considerable variation in the protein profile among the different treatments, with an expression of some unique proteins obvious with other treatments. SW treatments increased heavy metals (HM) content in soil and plants; however, EDTA or plant extracts greatly decreased the levels of HMs in both shoots and roots and soils. The present study results suggest that the application of EDTA or aqueous plant extracts can be a useful strategy for phytoextraction in areas irrigated with sewage water.