4
D. MadhuBala et al.
E. crassipes, today has become a prominent and malicious invasive species. When
left unchecked and undisturbed, it spreads over the entire lakes and ponds; thus,
drastically impeding water movement and obstruct sunlight, preventing its reach
to native aquatic flora, triggering their death and decay, culminating in the depletion of the dissolved oxygen in water, galvanize the demise of other aquatic fauna.
The plants serve as a convenient niche for mosquito breeding, the usual vectors of
many dangerous diseases. Water hyacinth is also responsible for posing similar
environmental problems in many countries and ends as an unmanageable problem.
if adequate control measures are not employed they encroach waterbodies that
has been exposed to anthropogenic effects; unbalance the existing lifecycles in the
eutrophicated lakes that acted as a sink of nutrient runoffs (Patel 2012). Because
of E. crassipes invasiveness, there has been established report of trails of biological control weevils (Neochetina bruchi Hustache and Neochetina eichhorniae), and
moth Niphograpta albiguttalis (Richard and John 1981). Neochetina eichhorniae
makes a lasting impact on controlling and eradicating this pest by reducing its mass,
enabling the plant to produce fewer offspring. A semi-aquatic grasshopper, tested in
South Africa as a supplementary control agent (Christiane and Hendrik 2008).
In an in-depth scientific investigation, E. crassipes has been established for its
competency to liberate 60–80% nitrogen and 69% of potassium from water. In
another similar study, E. crassipes roots were found to evacuate particulate matter and
nitrogen from a natural eutrophicated wetland. The plant absorbs heavy metals and
assorted toxins from polluted water sources (Sheffield 1967). The roots Eichhornia
crassipes take-up contaminants naturally; lead, mercury, strontium-90, including
organic compounds in higher concentrations capacity, thus the water hyacinths can
be grown explicitly for wastewater remediation (Abid et al. 2014). Hence in this
current work, E. crassipes was explored as an environmental indicator of pollution
in water bodies.
2 Materials and Methods
E. crassipes collected from four different places which includes a river—Yakra in
Kerala, and three lakes, namely Singanallur, Sulur and Ukkadam in Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu. Anatomical studies of water hyacinth done using saffranin and tryphan
blue stains. Histochemical localization for starch, protein, alkaloid, lignin was
performed on the plant using corresponding dyes. Cell measurements were also done
using image analyzer software. Chloride and sulphate content of the water sample
were estimated using standard methods (APHA 2005). pH and temperature of the
water samples were measured using pH meter and thermometer, respectively.
D. MadhuBala et al.
E. crassipes, today has become a prominent and malicious invasive species. When
left unchecked and undisturbed, it spreads over the entire lakes and ponds; thus,
drastically impeding water movement and obstruct sunlight, preventing its reach
to native aquatic flora, triggering their death and decay, culminating in the depletion of the dissolved oxygen in water, galvanize the demise of other aquatic fauna.
The plants serve as a convenient niche for mosquito breeding, the usual vectors of
many dangerous diseases. Water hyacinth is also responsible for posing similar
environmental problems in many countries and ends as an unmanageable problem.
if adequate control measures are not employed they encroach waterbodies that
has been exposed to anthropogenic effects; unbalance the existing lifecycles in the
eutrophicated lakes that acted as a sink of nutrient runoffs (Patel 2012). Because
of E. crassipes invasiveness, there has been established report of trails of biological control weevils (Neochetina bruchi Hustache and Neochetina eichhorniae), and
moth Niphograpta albiguttalis (Richard and John 1981). Neochetina eichhorniae
makes a lasting impact on controlling and eradicating this pest by reducing its mass,
enabling the plant to produce fewer offspring. A semi-aquatic grasshopper, tested in
South Africa as a supplementary control agent (Christiane and Hendrik 2008).
In an in-depth scientific investigation, E. crassipes has been established for its
competency to liberate 60–80% nitrogen and 69% of potassium from water. In
another similar study, E. crassipes roots were found to evacuate particulate matter and
nitrogen from a natural eutrophicated wetland. The plant absorbs heavy metals and
assorted toxins from polluted water sources (Sheffield 1967). The roots Eichhornia
crassipes take-up contaminants naturally; lead, mercury, strontium-90, including
organic compounds in higher concentrations capacity, thus the water hyacinths can
be grown explicitly for wastewater remediation (Abid et al. 2014). Hence in this
current work, E. crassipes was explored as an environmental indicator of pollution
in water bodies.
2 Materials and Methods
E. crassipes collected from four different places which includes a river—Yakra in
Kerala, and three lakes, namely Singanallur, Sulur and Ukkadam in Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu. Anatomical studies of water hyacinth done using saffranin and tryphan
blue stains. Histochemical localization for starch, protein, alkaloid, lignin was
performed on the plant using corresponding dyes. Cell measurements were also done
using image analyzer software. Chloride and sulphate content of the water sample
were estimated using standard methods (APHA 2005). pH and temperature of the
water samples were measured using pH meter and thermometer, respectively.