RECLAMATION AND MANAGEMENT OF POLLUTED SOILS: OPTIONS AND CASE STUDIES A comparative study to evaluate efficiency of EDTA and calcium in alleviating arsenic toxicity to germinating and young Vicia faba L. seedlings Marina Rafiq 1 & Muhammad Shahid 1 & Saliha Shamshad 1 & Sana Khalid 1 & Nabeel Khan Niazi 2,3,4 & Ghulam Abbas 1 & Muhammad Farhan Saeed 1 & Mazhar Ali 1 & Behzad Murtaza 1 Received: 14 October 2016 /Accepted: 8 March 2017 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract Purpose This study delineated the effect of calcium (Ca) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) addition on arsenic (As) accumulation and physiological attributes of Vicia faba L. Materials and methods Two separate experiments were per- formed. In the first experiment, V. faba seedlings, grown under hydroponic conditions, were exposed to three levels of As (25, 125 and 250 μM) in the presence and absence of three levels of EDTA (25, 125, 250 μM) and calcium (CaCl 2 : 1, 5 and 10 mM). The effect of EDTA and Ca on As accumulation and physiological attributes of V. faba was assessed by determin- ing As contents in roots and shoot, chlorophyll contents, H 2 O 2 contents, and lipid peroxidation in young and old leaves. In the second experiment, V. faba seeds were grown in As- contaminated sand culture using the same treatment plan. Results and discussion The accumulation and toxicity of As to V. faba plants increased with increasing As levels in nutrient solution. Arsenic exposure enhanced the production of reac- tive oxygen species (ROS) in both roots and leaves, which resulted in lipid peroxidation and decreased chlorophyll contents. The presence of both EDTA and Ca, in general, significantly decreased As accumulation by V. faba seedlings, Ca being more effective than EDTA. Both the amendments decreased As-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) produc- tion and lipid peroxidation. In the case of chlorophyll contents, EDTA significantly decreased chlorophyll contents, while Ca significantly increased chlorophyll contents compared to As. The effect of all the treatments was more pronounced in roots than leaves and in young leaves compared to old leaves. Conclusions It is proposed that EDTA and Ca greatly affect As accumulation and toxicity to V. faba, and the effect varies greatly with their applied levels as well as type and age of plant organs. The germinating seedlings of V. faba may be preferred for risk assessment studies, while transplanting 1-week-old V. faba seedlings to As-contaminated soils can decrease its toxicity. Keywords Arsenic . Calcium . EDTA . Physiological attributes . Vicia faba 1 Introduction Environmental pollution with potentially (eco)toxic heavy metal(loid)s is ubiquitous around the globe. The levels of these heavy metal(loid)s in different environmental compartments (air, soil, and water) have increased drastically over the last three decades, thus posing a severe risk to the environmental and human health (Austruy et al. 2014; Shahid et al. 2015b; Shahid et al. 2016; Rafiq et al. 2017). Arsenic (As) belongs to transitional reactive metalloids and is highly toxic. Arsenic exposure to human via different pathways (dietary and non- dietary) is considered a serious environmental health risk to human worldwide (Foucault et al. 2013; Rehman et al. 2016). Responsible editor: Jaume Bech * Muhammad Shahid muhammadshahid@ciitvehari.edu.pk 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Vehari, Pakistan 2 Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan 3 MARUM and Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany 4 Southern Cross GeoScience, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia J Soils Sediments DOI 10.1007/s11368-017-1693-5