*Corresponding author: Dhale. D.A Department of Botany, SSVPS’s, L.K.Dr.P.R.Ghogrey Science College, Dhule (M.S., India) ISSN: 0976-3031 RESEARCH ARTICLE EFFECT OF TEXTILE DYE ON SEED GERMINATION OF CHICKPEA Mayuri C. Rathod 1 , Bhoomika Senjaliya 1 and D.A.Dhale 2* 1 Department of Biotechnology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India 2 Department of Botany, SSVPS’s, L.K. Dr. P.R. Ghogrey Science College, Dhule (M.S., India) ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: Received 5 th , February, 2015 Received in revised form 12 th , February, 2015 Accepted 6 th , March, 2015 Published online 28 th , March, 2015 The effect of textile effluent was studied with respect to germination and growth of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). In lower concentration the germination ratio and growth are relatively higher than the control, but gradual decrease in the germination of seeds, seedling growth with increase in effluent concentration was observed. The best germination and seedling growth was observed in 25% concentration with growth promoting effect and significantly better than control. Beyond 25% effluent, root and shoot length decreased. Thus the textile mill effluent can be safely used for irrigation purposes with proper treatment and dilution at 25%. Disposal of these effluents through proper treatment might have a positive result from the view of producing a sustainable environment. Consequently, farmers who are adjacent to textile industry areas will benefit by using treated effluent for production of crops that will minimize the use of fresh underground water for dying and other purposes. Key words: Textile Dye, Seed Germination, Cicer arietinum Copyright © 2015 Dhale. D.A et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. INTRODUCTION India is an agrarian country. Chickpea is one of the most important vegetables in India. Periphery and urban area are used by farmers for cultivation of this vegetable. Now a day, textiles dying effluents are discharging to agriculture crop areas without treatment of water. Treating waste effluents is very much significant for cultivation of crops and environment. Moreover, the economy of India is predominantly based on agriculture but, in the race towards industrialization, industries are taking place in a gradual increasing phase. The important industries are textiles, lather tanning, fertilizer, sugar, chemical pharmaceutical, oil refining and so on. Among these, textile industries are rapidly expanding day by day. There are 1821 small and large knit dyeing industries in India (Adeyinka and Urum, 2004). These industries are major source of effluents due to the nature of their operations which requires high volume of water that eventually results in high wastewater generation. The most common textile wet processing setup consists of desizing, scouring, bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing as well as finishing process. Dyeing is the process of adding color to the fibers, which normally requires a large volume of water. However, the adverse effects of textile effluents on plants depend on the type of species, types and concentrations of toxic materials in the effluent. This necessitates a detailed scientific study before any specific waste can be used for irrigation for particular crop and environmental conditions. Seed germination is an important and vulnerable stage in the life cycle of terrestrial angiosperms and determines seedling establishment and plant growth. Such types of works have performed in a scattered way in many countries of the world rather those in our country, for instance, Muhammad and Khan found that industrial effluent reduced the germination percentage of kidney bean (Phaseolus aureus) and ladies’ fingers (Abelmoschus esculentus). While working with Cicer arietinum Dayama (1987) reported that even highly diluted industrial effluent (5% of industrial effluent) adversely reduced the seed germination. In contrast, 50% diluted textile effluent increased the seed germination, total sugars, starch, reducing sugars and chlorophyll of groundnut seedlings. Similarly, effect of dye factory effluent was studied with respect to germination and growth of Bengal gram Cicer arietinum L. In lower concentration the germination percentage and growth are relatively higher than the control, but gradual decrease in the germination of seeds, seedling growth with increase in effluent concentration was observed (Hedge and Hofreiter, 1962). The chemicals present in the textile effluent are not only poisonous to humans but also found toxic to the growth of plants and aquatic life. Certain pollutants in textile waste water are more important to target for pollution. Such effluents must be treated before discharging in to the agricultural field. Present investigation has clearly shown that industrial effluents are toxic to seed germination and growth rate. (Susan Verghese and Kumar, 2004). Available Online at http://www.recentscientific.com International Journal of Recent Scientific Research International Journal of Recent Scientific Research Vol. 6, Issue, 3, pp.2938-2943, March, 2015