A study was conducted to examine the effect of different levels of paper mill effluent on rice var. Pusa Basmati-1 (PB-l) at the germination stage. The effluent at higher concentration showed limited inhibitory effect on the germination percentage. The shoot and root length increased on application of effluent at 25 and 50% concentration but higher concentrations of effluent, i.e. 75 and 100% effluent, retarded the root and shoot length of the seedlings. RWC and MSI decreased with increase in the effluent concentration but the total sugar content increased significantly with the increase in effluent concentration. Hydrogen peroxide content increased in the seedlings under higher concentration of effluent with a corresponding increase in lipid peroxidation. At higher concentration of paper mill effluents, activity of antioxidant enzyme system, viz. superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and peroxidase increased significantly over the control. Thus salinity stress created by the paper mill effluent was found to be significantly higher at 75 and 100% paper mill effluent concentration.
Antioxidant activity, MSI, paper mill effluent, rice, RWC
