1 Plant Archives Vol. 20, Supplement 2, 2020 pp. 3378-3384 e-ISSN:2581-6063 (online), ISSN:0972-5210 PHYTOTOXICITY AND EFFECT ON ALLIUM CEPA OF THE PERMEATE OBTAINED AFTER THE PHYSICO-BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF CONGO RED BY PHYSICO-BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT Shilpa Nandi 1 , Sujata Das * , Shalini Singh 1 , Reema Verma 1 1 School of Bio Engineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University. Phagwara, Punjab, India *Corresponding author Email: sujata.nss@gmail.com Abstract The release of chemical, synthetic dyes like, congo red, into the environment is a major concern due to their associated toxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. In the present study phytotoxicity, effect on pH, carbon, phosphates, potassium and ammoniacal nitrogen on soil and Allium cepa study has been conducted of the permeate obtained after the adsorption study, after first and third cycle usage of the adsorbent (wheat bran), along with the treatment with Scizophyllum-S4, a white rot fungus for the assessment of the potential usage of reusage and sustainability of the permeate obtained. The study has revealed 90.6% increase in tolerance index on treatment with Scizophyllum-S4 of the dye adsorbed bran, 88.37% increase in radical and 41.4% plumule growth, but with an increase in chlorophyll a and b by 6.6 and 34.84%, respectively after 1 st cycle of treatment of the dye on wheat bran rather than on organism treatment, with a variation in soil with a very high content around 392 kg/Ha of potassium as comparable with that of the control. On Allium cepa studies it has depicted that there are affects in the chromosomes of congo red even after being treated either by physical method of adsorption or after a combination of both physical and biological treatment. Thus, showing that the permeate obtained after the treatment can potentially reduce the pollution rate and better be used for ornamental plant growth rather than proper vegetations. Keywords : Phytotoxicity, Allium cepa, congo red, wheat bran, reusability. Introduction Congo Red, a salt of sodium benzidinediazo-bis-1- naphthylamine-4-sulfonate, chemically a di-azo dye, which is red in alkaline and blue in an acidic solution. It is used as a histological stain and as an indicator (Samanta et al., 2013; Vyas, 2017, 2019). This dye has also an immense application in the textile industries (Sudhakar et al., 2015; Singh et al., 2016; Bansal and Sen Gupta, 2017; Singh et al., 2019). The major problem with this dye is, being an azo dye, degradation of such dye is very difficult, as a result, when they are disposed-off to the environment, they are included in the category of recalcitrant substances, which contributes towards the environmental pollution (Sharma et al., 2011; Gill and Saini, 2017; Prabhakar et al., 2013, 2014. 2020). These dyes constitute immense health risks being carcinogenic in nature (Bhatia et al., 2018; Kaur, 2019). Different types of techniques have also been employed for the removal of such dyes from the wastewater (Kaur and Kamboj, 2019; Kaur and Gupta, 2017; Kumar et al., 2020; Singh, 2019). These dyes due to their obvious toxic impact to flora and fauna requires a continuous incorporation of sustainable treatment technology. Dye pollution caused by usage of such chemical based dyes in various industries is thereby, a cause of concern (Kaur and Vandana, 2019). Around 1-10% of the dyes used during the production process in the textile industry are lost (Wong and Yu, 1999; Arslan et al., 2000). These dyes are characterized by high stability in light, oxidizing agent and heat, recalcitrance to biodegradation and bioaccumulation and persistance in the environment, if not checked (Crini, 2006 and Annuar et al., 2009). These dyes can affect the aquatic ecosystem and human health (genotoxic, mutagenic, as well as carcinogenic) via the food chain, and also reduce the oxygen concentration and light penetration when present of surface of water (Michaels and Lewis, 1985; Mathur et al., 2006; Purvaneswari et al., 2006; Sharma et al., 2019). So, a coaction of adsorption using wheat bran (WB), a lignocellulosic waste and biological treatment with a white rot fungi, rich in ligninolytic enzyme, having the capacity to breakdown recalcitrant dye molecule could provide a suitable treatment facility which is not only eco-friendly but cost effective as well (Das et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2014; Nankar et al., 2017; Mishra, 2019a, 2019b). Various treatment stages correspond to its individual efficiency. Therefore, in this study, reusability, toxicity and sustainability of the treated congo red is assessed by seed germination as well as pot studies. Chromosomal aberrations by treated dye is checked by Allium cepa study in relation to understand the cytotoxic effect caused by them (Dutta et al., 2018; Chauhan et al., 2017; Farooq and Sehgal, 2019a, 2019b). Thus, the purpose of the study was to check whether the bio-physically treated industrial dye and effluent has much lower or even a null toxicity level so that it can be reused and prove to be a sustainable alternative for environmental protection. Material and Method Materials The reagents and chemicals used for this study were of analytical gradation and acquired from HiMedia, Bangalore, India and Genei, New Delhi, India. 98% pure congo red (C 32 H 22 N 6 Na 2 O 6 S 2 ) was procured from Loba Chemi, Mumbai, India. Lignocellulosic waste, wheat bran, was procured from the local market of Jalandhar Cant., Punjab, India. Procurement of culture The culture Scizophyllum-S4 was procured from the laboratory of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India. Preliminary treatment of wheat bran as an adsorbent Wheat bran (WB), obtained from neighboring market was first cleansed with distilled water for the removal of all