Lithium Toxicity Alleviation in Vicia faba Plants using Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Biochar

Elbasiouny, Heba; Darweesh, Marwa; Zedan, Amina; Mostafa, Azza A.; Almuhamady, Abdulsalam; Dawoud, Sherifa F.M.; Sharaf-Eldin, Aisha M.; Elbltagy, Hala M.; Elbehiry, Fathy

doi:10.21608/ejss.2025.389839.2194

Lithium Toxicity Alleviation in Vicia faba Plants using Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Biochar

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Faculty of Agriculture (Girls Branch), Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, 11651, Egypt

² President of The Arab Center for Nanotechnology, Egypt

³ Basic and Applied Agricultural Sciences Department, Higher Institute for Agricultural Co-Operation, Shubra El-Kheima 13766, Egypt

10.21608/ejss.2025.389839.2194

Abstract

By acting as nano-fertilizers, nanoparticles (NPs) have recently emerged as promising agents for plants to alleviate abiotic stressors, as well as biochar (BC). Specifically, the effect of Nanoparticle zinc oxide (ZnO-NPs) or BC on plant responses to lithium (Li) stress has not been studied as Li is one of the emerging contaminants. Combining nano-zinc oxide (ZnO-NPs) and biochar (BC) is a promising approach to sustainable agriculture and environmental health. Thus, this study was performed through an aquatic experiment to investigate the effect of Li toxicity on the morphological parameters, enzyme activity, metals accumulation, and cytogenic toxicity parameters of Vicia faba plants, as well as to study the positive or negative effect of ZnO-NPs and BC on Li toxicity. Fifty mg L-1 of Li was used to present the toxicity of Li on plants, while 2% biochar and 25 and 100 mg L-1 of ZnO-NPs were applied to examine the alleviation effect on Li toxicity. The addition of Li led to a decrease in the root length (13.3 cm) and leaves number (5.7) compared to the control (18.5 cm and 8.3, respectively). Li led to flocculated effects of catalase, total soluble peroxidase, and polyphenol oxidase activities. Li or higher concentration of ZnO-NPs caused higher accumulation of both metals in plants. As well, bioaccumulation factor was very high in Li or Zn treatments, and the treatment behavior was markedly varied. Li toxicity decreased the mitotic index (1.42%) compared to the control (8.45%) an increasing the abnormalities from 0% to 11.33%. ZnO-NPs showed unexpected results especially 100 mg l-1. Biochar enhanced most of the investigated parameters, however, the enhancement was greater when BC was combined with 25 mg l-1 ZnO-NPs indicating that combining BC and a low rate of ZnO-NPs can be a promising solution to alleviate lithium toxicity in the environment. However, more studied are required to address the optimal concentration of BC and ZnO-NPs to eliminate Li from the environment.

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