Co-cultivation as a Strategy to Reduce Food Chain-Mediated Arsenic Contamination in Human Beings

Arsenic (As) is a highly toxic metalloid present naturally in the earth's crust. In developing countries apart from drinking water, one major reason for arsenic toxicity among human beings is through contaminated crops and vegetables. The nutritional quality of the crops and vegetables grown in the arsenic-infested area gets compromised. A major challenge is to protect the vegetables and crops from arsenic contamination. Attempts have been made through different remediation technologies. The present research is designed to reduce the arsenic load in arsenic-sensitive (non-hyperaccumulator) plants by co-cultivation with hyperaccumulator plants, thus saving food chain contamination to humans. In the present study, done in potted plants, it has been found that co-cultivated B. oleracea has 1.5 times decreased arsenic translocation compared to the control plant; on the contrary, hyperaccumulator B. juncea showed higher translocation. Plant health biomarkers like total chlorophyll and protein contents were two times higher in co-cultivated B. oleracea compared to the As-treated control which actually seconds the fact of less translocation in the co-cultivated plants. The stress marker like proline content, super oxide dimutase, and malondialdehyde content showed a decrease in co-cultivated B. oleracea compared to the control plant grown in arsenic-infested soil which again reflected less stress in co-cultivated plants. From these findings of the research, we can hypothesize that hyperaccumulator B. juncea might save B. oleracea from arsenic-induced toxicity when co-cultivated and thus can save food chain-mediated contamination to human beings.