Influence of textile dyes on some morphological, biochemical and physiological characteristics of broad bean (Vicia faba L.)

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of textile dyes on some morphological and biochemical traits of board bean at a greenhouse of University of Tabriz, Iran, in 2016. Three types of dye (Acid Yellow, Acid Red, Direct Blue) and five dye concentrations (0, 30, 50, 70 and 90 mg/L) were studied using a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments were applied at seedling, pre-flowering and flowering stages. In this experiment, seed number, leaf number, peroxidase (POX) and catalase (CAT) activities, decolorization percentage and protein content were measured at all three stages of development.  Results indicated that the effect of dye concentrations was significant on POX, CAT, leaf number, seed number and decolorization percentage at pre-flowering and flowering stages, and on protein content at all stages, whereas type of dye only had significant effect on seed number, protein content at pre-flowering and on CAT activity at both pre-flowering and flowering stages. Interaction of dye type with dye concentration was only significant for decolorization percentage at pre-flowering and flowering stages. The greatest increase in POX and CAT activities, and protein content were observed with 90 mg/L dye concentration at both pre-flowering and flowering stages; however, highest seed number were observed with the control treatment (0 mg/L dye concentrations) at pre-flowering and flowering stages. We may conclude that although absorbing dye by plants imposed a stress on them, but they were able to survive under this stress. Therefore, we might consider broad bean as one of the efficient plants for phytoremediation.