Arsenic accumulation in sesame (Sesamum indicum) cultivars under deltaic bengal conditions

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid, widely available in the natural ecosystem, and poses serious problem in Gangetic delta basin of India and Bangladesh through contamination of groundwater and drinking water. The widespread arsenic contamination in West Bengal, distributed over 111 blocks primarily within 12 districts of the state, adjoining the river Bhagirathi, as well as contiguous districts of Bangladesh is of great concern. Arsenic uptake by plants and its translocation to the edible parts were observed to vary with crops and even among the cultivars of the same crop. Keeping this in view, the present investigation has been undertaken to study the arsenic accumulation and the varietal tolerance with relative pattern of arsenic uptake vis-a-vis yield and yield attributes by selected cultivars of sesame at farmers fields of village Nonaghata in Nadia district of West Bengal during summer season of 2007–08. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) replicated thrice having the six selected popular sesame cultivars. The arsenic accumulation of different plant parts was estimated by using AAS, PerkinElmer AAnalyst-200 coupled with FIAS-400. Results revealed that different cultivars of sesame accumulated different amount of arsenic in different plant parts and arsenic accumulation in different parts of sesame remained in an order to root >leaf >stem >seed irrespective of all the cultivars tested. Regarding varietal effect cv. SWB 32-10-1 showed maximum accumulation of As in its seeds, whereas the least accumulation was noted from the cv. Rama. The yield and different yield attributes of different cultivars of sesame were significantly different from each other.