Abstract

Air pollution has been described as an additional stress on plants since they often respond to atmospheric contamination in the same way as they respond to drought and other environmental stress. The present study was undertaken to work out the impact of vehicular pollution on the pigment content of two plants namely-Dalbergia sissoo and Pongamia pinnata growing at different roadsides with varying number and type of plying vehicles. For this, leaf samples from different sites of the above-referred species were collected and analyzed for leaf extract pH, Chl a, Chl b, Carotenoid and protein content. All the parameters showed reduction with increase vehicular density in comparison to control (least polluted) site. It is concluded that plants can be used as indicators for urban air pollution, and there is need to protect the roadside plants from air pollution.

Description