ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Physiological and Biochemical Responses of Aerva lanata (L.) Juss. ex Schult. under Heavy Metal Stress

Biotic and abiotic stresses exert a considerable influence on the growth and reproduction of plants. Temperature, pH, light, water and various chemical pollutants are the important abiotic stresses which directly affect the survival, growth, reproduction and geographical distribution of all plants. The present study aims to determine the stress related changes of Aerva lanata (L.) Juss. ex Schult. under different habitats. A. lanata is an important herb which is widely used for different therapeutic practices. It comes under the family Amaranthaceae. The physiological and biochemical analysis were conducted on the samples from polluted (road side and sides of polluted water body) and non- polluted habitats. The analysis showed remarkable variation among the samples of polluted and non-polluted plants. The results showed that A. lanata of non-polluted habitats were unstressed which was confirmed by the least amount of proline, malondialdehyde (MDA) and high amount of photosynthetic pigments. Heavy metal quantification also showed low amount of heavy metals (Zinc, Lead, Cadmium and Nickel) in samples from non- polluted areas when compared to polluted area, where the quantity of heavy metals is high. The present study revealed remarkable biochemical changes in the plants which were grown under polluted and non-polluted habitats. Moreover, this study also indicated the accumulation of heavy metals in various parts of A. lanata collected from polluted habitats when compared to samples collected from non-polluted habitats. Thus while collecting A. lanata for medicinal purposes, the polluted habitats should be avoided. This study is also very important for researchers who investigate the changes of plants under different stress factors.