Phyto-toxic effect of particular material PM10 collected in the urban area of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador

The atmospheric pollutants cause adverse effects on plants, although the effect of PM10 on them is not known for sure, the present investigation aims to determine the phytotoxic effect of aqueous extracts of PM10 particulate material, coming from three sites of the urban area of the Cuenca- Ecuador canton, using the method described in the National regulations (Unified Text of Secondary Environmental Legislation of the Ministry of the Environment), on the growth of the root and hypocotyl of seeds of Lactuca sativa, Brassica oleracea italica, Raphanus sativus. For the characterization of the particulate material in heavy metals (cadmium, manganese, nickel and lead), the EPA 3005a atomic absorption spectroscopy method was used, then the aqueous extracts were obtained with ultra pure water by ultrasonication for 30 minutes, the seeds were exposed to four dilutions of the aqueous fraction of PM10 (100%, 10%, 1% and 0.1%) during a short exposure time, the data were analyzed in the IBM SPSS Statistics 22 and GraphPad Prism programs and through the Kruskal Wallis’s statistician. The results show that the phytotoxic effect of PM10 could be attributed to the species reported in the aqueous extract (Mn, Ni, Pb and Cd). It was also shown that the hypocotyl growth inhibition was superior to that of the root.