Application of exogenous indole-3-acetic acid on shoots of Zamioculcas zamiifolia for enhancing toluene and formaldehyde removal

Journal article

Authors/Editors

CHAIRAT TREESUBSUNTORN

Strategic Research Themes

Innovative Environment (Future Learning)

Publication Details

Author list: Ullah, Haseeb; Treesubsuntorn, Chairat; Thiravetyan, Paitip

Publication year: 2020

Volume number: 13

Issue number: 5

Start page: 575

End page: 583

Number of pages: 9

ISSN: 18739318

URL: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85083279275&doi=10.1007%2fs11869-020-00820-y&partnerID=40&md5=b7ff7a5d6499507961855f90078555e2

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

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Abstract

Indoor air pollution is of increasing concern for human health. Amongst the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found indoors, formaldehyde and toluene are two toxic compounds. Indoor plants have an innate capability to remediate indoor airborne pollutants. Zamioculcas zamiifolia is an ornamental plant local to Thailand reported to be very efficient for VOC removal. Indole acetic acid (IAA) was applied to shoots and roots of Z. zamiifolia to enhance the capability for removing a toluene and formaldehyde mixture. We found that 5 μM of exogenous IAA can enhance Z. zamiifolia efficiency about 20% and 40% for toluene and formaldehyde, respectively, after plant was exposed to initial toluene-formaldehyde mixture concentration 20 ppm (1:1) for 3 cycles (156 h). We found that 5 μM of exogenous IAA had a positive effect on the stomatal aperture opening and stomatal conductance. However, 10 μM of exogenous IAA had a negative effect on the opening of stomatal aperture, and thus initially decreased that remediating ability of Z. zamiifolia for formaldehyde and toluene. We investigated the formaldehyde dehydrogenase activity in shoots of Z. zamiifolia and found significantly enhanced FDH activity in plants supplied with exogenous IAA. We concluded that exogenous IAA in optimum amounts could enhance the mitigating ability of indoor plants for airborne air pollutants. However, our research indicated that the application of IAA to roots could have a negative effect on the remediating ability of Z. zamiifolia. © 2020, Springer Nature B.V.

Keywords

Air phytoremediation, indole-3-acetic acid