Effect of Chromium on Growth Attributes in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Phytoremediation, the use of plants for environmental restoration, is an emerging cleanup technology. To exploit plant potential to remediate soil and water, contaminated with a variety of compounds, several techniques have been established. In the present study, a pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of chromium-contaminated soil on growth attributes in sunflower. Three different levels of chromium i.e. 20, 40 and 60 mg kg(-1) were applied to three varieties of sunflower (G-3, G-9 and G-59). The results of morphological and yield parameters were recorded at crop maturity. The data showed that germination was affected by increasing chromium level as well as root and shoot length were decreased with increase in chromium concentration. A gradual decrease was observed for various morphological parameters like root fresh and dry weights, shoot fresh and dry weights and plant height with increase in chromium level. A comparison among chromium treatments obtained a significant decrease in yield parameters as achenes/capitulum, achenes/plant and 100 achenes weight in three varieties. Chromium significantly absorbed by roots but its transport to other parts of plants was slow and chromium uptake in seeds was very much lower than roots and shoots.