Red Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor L.) Irrigated with Domestic Sewage Wastewater as a Source of Irrigation: Environmental Food Security and Safety Assessment Perspectives through Acute and Sub- Acute Toxicity Study

Abstract

Water deficiency is one of the main factors for limiting sustainable agricultural development in most arid and semi-arid regions. There is a gradual decline in the availability of fresh water to be used for irrigation in developing countries like India. Sewage farming is quite common in all urban areas in India. The effect of its direct and long-term use for irrigation needs a thorough study. However, there is increasing concern about food safety and health risks, hence, a case study was undertaken to understand the long-term effect of domestic sewage wastewater irrigation on heavy metal concentrations in soil and plants. The study reveals the mineral and heavy metal composition of irrigated domestic sewage wastewater and it has been compared with the well water irrigated in the rural area, soil parameters and also the mineral and heavy metal composition of a cultivated plant, Amaranthus tricolor L. Transfer factor (TF) was calculated to understand the extent of risk and associated hazard due to wastewater irrigation and the consequence of heavy metals accumulation in the edible portion of experimented vegetables. The present study was carried out to assess the potential toxicity of acetone extract of A. tricolor with some essential parameters such as haematological and biochemical parameters, liver and kidney weight and their histopathological study. After conducting in vivo acute and subchronic toxicity experiments using the rat model, there was no toxicity or mortality observed between domestic sewage water and well water irrigated to red amaranth, A. tricolor.