Available online at http://www.jabonline.in DOI: 10.7324/JABB.2022.10s103 In vitro evaluation of arsenic accumulation and tolerance in some agricultural crops growing adjacent to the Ganga River Dheeraj Pandey 1 *, Harbans Kaur Kehri 1 , Ifra Zoomi 1 , Shweta Chaturvedi 2 , Kanhaiya Lal Chaudhary 1 1 Sadasivan Mycopathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India. 2 K. Banerjee Center of Atmospheric and Ocean Studies, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received on: July 05, 2021 Accepted on: October 09, 2021 Available Online: March 18, 2022 Key words: Arsenic, T. aestivum, As-tolerant ABSTRACT The presence of arsenic in water is linked not only to health concerns, but also to the socio-economic conditions of a huge population in poor countries. The severity of As-poisoning might be accelerated by poor health and nutritional status. Many people suffer from pre-cancerous skin keratosis, Bowen’s disease, and Arsenicosis, among other conditions. Long-term exposure can cause cancer. For in vitro screening of As tolerant plant, four plants viz., Triticum aestivum, Lycopersicon esculentum, Solanum melongena, and Capsicum annuum, were raised in As amended triple sterilized soil and sand mixture (1:1 ratio). L. esculentum and S. melongena could survive up to 100 ppm but extremely poor growth and biomass were recorded. The maximum tolerance was recorded in T. aestivum up to 150 ppm, whereas least survival was recorded for C. annuum. 1. INTRODUCTION Arsenic (As) compounds are highly toxic and non-essential for the growth and development of living organisms. It has toxic effects on metabolic processes of plants, mitotic abnormalities, leaf chlorosis, growth inhibition, reduced photosynthesis, DNA mutations, and inhibition of enzyme activities. In general, plants growing in natural soil contain low level of As (<3.6 mg/kg) [1,2]. Arsenate is the dominant form in which arsenic is present in soil and its similarities with phosphate allow it to compete for the same uptake carriers in the root plasma lemma [3]. It interferes with the metabolic processes and inhibits plant growth and development through arsenic-induced phytotoxicity. The contamination of As in South Asian groundwater aquifers was frst reported in the mid- 1990s and since then a lot of work has been conducted for the last two decades [4]. The utilization of these groundwater sources for irrigation and drinking badly affected human beings, cattle and crops. Historically, As had been used as a drug to treat skin infection and beautifcation. It was also used as a homicidal drug and named as “king of poison” [5]. In the 20th century, useful applications were also started as wood preservation, rodents poisoning, and fungicides, etc. but in modern times it was noted as carcinogenic and toxic heavy material [6,7]. In the current situation, arsenic pollution happens globally, affecting more than twenty countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, the Soviet Union, Peru, Namibia, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States. Southeast Asia and the plains of the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra are heavily contaminated by As [8,9]. The presence of arsenic in water is linked not only to health concerns, but also to the socio-economic conditions of a huge population in poor countries. The severity of As-poisoning might be accelerated by poor health and nutritional status. Many people suffer from pre-cancerous skin keratosis, Bowen’s disease, and Arsenicosis, among other conditions. Long-term exposure can cause cancer [10]. Metal tolerant plants have recently received great attention for the establishment of vegetation in heavy metal contaminated soils. Such plants have developed several mechanisms for the detoxifcation of heavy metals. Exploration of such plants and microbes for sustainable agriculture and improvement of degrading habitats is a new approach toward the modern steps. An agro-climate of India is rich in food grain as well as vegetable diversity and their production. In the present scenario population and rapid increased pollution provides more burden to produce much amount of food *Corresponding Author Dheeraj Pandey, Sadasivan Mycopathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India. E-mail: dheerajpandey817@gmail.com © 2022 Pandey et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License -NonCommercial-ShareAlike Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Journal of Applied Biology & Biotechnology Vol.10(Suppl 1), pp.15-22, March, 2022