Effect of Vegetable Oil Mill Effluents on Physiological Properties of Brassica compestris L. Seeds

Industrialization has made our day-to-day life easier and is also a key determinant of the economic growth of any nation. But on the dark side, industries are also known to cause almost all types of pollution including soil, air, and water pollution. Untreated industrial effluents when discharged in agricultural fields affect overall crop production. OME is believed to induce a phytotoxic effect on seed germination and overall plant growth. This paper aims to test the toxicity of soybean and mustard oil mill effluents and their impact on the Vitality Index, Seed Vigour Index, and Tolerance Index of seeds of Brassica compestris L. The study was conducted during July 2020 - June 2022. Two sets of experiments were settled, one for mustard OME and another for soybean OME. Various concentrations of OME were prepared; 0% oil mill effluent (tap water),10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100% OME (not diluted). Treatment with tap water was treated as a control. A germination test with 10 seeds mounted on moist filter paper was conducted in an incubator at a temperature of 23°C. Seed vitality index, Seed vigour index, Tolerance index, and Phyto-toxicity were calculated with standard methods. Vitality index (VI) decreases to almost 1/5 with increasing OME concentration as compared to control (without OME) with both the OME. Up to 10% OME concentration in both cases there is almost no negative impact, but after that soybean OME concentration shows more negative effect on the seed vigour index. The tolerance index (TI) was reduced to almost 50% with increasing OME concentration from 0% (water) to 100% in both treatments. Toxicity is more pronounced with soybean OME during the early germination period but later it shows that toxicity increases with increasing OME concentration with both the OME. It can be concluded that higher concentrations of vegetable oil mill effluent negatively affect seed vitality, vigour and this may be due to reduced tolerance and increased toxicity with higher concentrations of OME. All these parameters under study have a significantly high correlation with the concentration of OME.