Effects of Varying Concentrations of Toluene and Benzene on Seed Germination and Seedling Growth of Different Crop Species (Zea

mays and Oryza sativa) Toluene and benzene are known to be one of the broad organic pollutants contaminating the air. But these organic volatile compounds may also be found in the air-water environment which can have an effect in the plants. These organic contaminants may be degraded in the root zone of plants or taken up, followed by degradation, sequestration, or volatilization depending on their physico-chemical properties. Accroding to Smits, the property of these contaminants like volatility which are proposed to have influence over their fate and behavior in the soil-water environment may also attribute to the toxicity of contaminants to plant. Previously conducted studies on the effect of toluene and benzene on plants showed that there are specific differences observed in seed germination and tolerance was very wide on different species of plants. The effect of contaminant on microorganisms and plants was reported to be depending on the concentration of contamination. A study conducted by Fulekar and Korade on ryegrass illustrated that ryegrass can efficiently survive and tolerate the benzene concentration even at high concentration of 100mg/kg. The percentage seed germination did not vary significantly between benzene contaminated soils and control soil. While in the work done on phytotoxicity of ancient gaswork soils by Henner et al., it was explained that volatile, water-soluble low molecular-weight hydrocarbons (<3 rings) such as benzene, toluene, xylene (BTX), styrene, indene, naphthalene and other toxic substances strongly inhibited plant germination and growth in contrast to the high molecular weight PAHs (3-5 rings) which did not show any phytotoxicity under the conditions studied. The presence of low molecular weight hydrocarbons could inhibit plant growth as suggested by experiments on soils spiked with fuel oil. There were also studies concerning on the effects of toluene and benzene on plant leaves. Toluene in a concentration of 6,000-12,000 mgm-3 is said to induce the darkening of leaves and a decrease in turgor and numerous chloroses in tomato, barley, and carrot. Similar symptoms of toxic effects on plants were observed by Miller et al. in relation to benzene at a concentration of 10,000 mgm-3 References: Fulekar, M. and Korade, D. Effect of organic contaminants on seed germination of Lolium multiflorum in soil. Accessed from, http://biolmedonline.com/Articles/vol1_1_28-34.pdf, on July 10, 2012. Henner P., et al. Accessed from, Phytotoxicity of ancient gaswork soils. Effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on plant germination, on July 10, 2012.