You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Vigna unguiculata and Telfairai occidentalis were grown in soil polluted with different concentrations of cadmium and then treated with Zinc Oxide nanoparticles to investigate the mitigating effects of ZnO NP on their growth, stress tolerance and cadmium uptake. The experiment lasted for a duration of 9 weeks. The experiment consisted of two controls, 1 with nanoparticle and the other with no treatment, and 3 different concentration of cadmium, 25mg/kg, 50 mg/kg and 75mg/kg respectively. Each treatment had replicates of 3 each making an overall total of 30 bags (15 for Vigna and 15 for Telfairai). Three seeds were planted in each bags for Vigna unguiculata and two seeds for Telfairai occidentalis. Germination studies were taken (after 3 days after planting for Vigna after 13days for Telfairai) for a duration of 5 days after which morphological data such as plant height, stem girth, number of leaves and number of leaves lost were taken. Results recorded that cadmium inhibited the germination of Vigna unguiculata but the foliar application of the Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles weekly to the plant made it thrive positively in terms of its height, girth and its number of leaves. Whereas in Telfairai occidentalis treatment with cadmium had no negative effect on the germination of the plant as almost an 100% yield was attained but after the second foliar application of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on the leaves, it was observed that the plants had negative effects such as chlorosis, wilting and drying of leaves. Recent studies claim that this negative effect was as a result of the high concentration of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles. Hence, more studies is needed for this cause.
