Effect of Heavy metals on Morphological and Biochemical characteristics of Albizia procera (Roxb.) Benth. Seedlings

An investigation was conducted to study the differential action of heavy metals such as Cd, As and Pb on morphological and biochemical parameters of Albizia procera. These heavy metals at all concentration (1, 5 and 10 ppm) exhibited significant reduction in chlorophyll, crude protein, amino acid and soluble sugar quantity in leaves. These biochemical parameters showed a positive correlation with leaf area, root length, shoot length and biomass of the plant,.Polyphenol, proline and ascorbic acid of leaves significantly increased over control but revealed negative correlation with root-shoot length, leaf area and biomass of plant at all treatment levels. Concentration dependent changes were observed in most of the parameters. Hence, the morphological and biochemical traits may serve to determine suitable bioindicators of heavy metal pollution and also for the classification of the species as tolerant or sensitive to heavy metals.