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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

A greenhouse pot experiment assessing the zinc-accumulating behavior of Lupinus uncinatus Schldl

Muhammad Ehsan1,2* ,  Vicente Espinosa Hernández1 ,  Dilawar Hassan3 ,  Ayesha Sani3 ,  Francisco Marcelo Lara Viveros4 ,  Jorge Luis Becerra López5 ,  Eduardo Baltierra Trejo6 ,  Rehana Gulzar7 ,  Nisbat Ali8 ,  Shahid Bashir9
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1 Department of Soil Science, Postgraduate College of Agricultural Sciences, Montecillos, State of Mexico, Mexico
2 Centro de Bachillerato Tecnológico Agropecuario No. 162 (Agricultural and Livestock Technology College No. 162), Francisco I. Madero, Tlaxcala, Mexico
3 Department of Nanotechnology, School of Sciences and Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Atizapán de Zaragoza, State of Mexico, Mexico
4 Department of Biosciences and Agrotechnology, Centro de Investigación en Química Aplicada (Center for Research in Applied Chemistry), Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico
5 Climate Change and Natural Resources Conservation Laboratory, Ecological Studies Centre, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico
6 Researchers for Mexico Program, Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (CONAHCyT – National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies), Mexico City, Mexico
7 Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Literature, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
8 Department of Management Science, Faculty of Management Sciences, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan
9 Department of Marketing, Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Atizapán de Zaragoza, State of Mexico, Mexico
AJWEP, 025140101 https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP025140101
Received: 3 April 2025 | Revised: 6 July 2025 | Accepted: 16 July 2025 | Published online: 9 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the zinc (Zn) accumulation potential of Lupinus uncinatus Schldl. The effects of varying Zn concentrations on plant dry matter yield, metal tolerance, and Zn accumulation and distribution in roots, stems, and leaves were investigated. Zn was applied as ZnCl2 at rates of, 200, 400, and 600 mg/kg. One-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test (p<0.05) revealed significant effects of Zn on root dry weight, Zn uptake in roots, stems, and leaves, and the shoot-to-root Zn ratio. Root dry weight was significantly reduced, with the highest Zn treatment (600 mg/kg) causing a 57% reduction compared to control plants. However, no significant differences were observed in overall plant dry matter yield. Metal tolerance declined with increasing Zn stress. Zn accumulation in leaves reached 9,632 mg/kg and 14,771 mg/kg at soil Zn application rates of 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg, respectively. The shoot-to-root Zn ratio exceeded one, and more than 64% of the total Zn absorbed by L. uncinatus was translocated to the shoots at 600 mg/kg. These results position L. uncinatus as a promising species for Zn phytoremediation, encouraging future studies under field conditions and with other toxic metals.

Keywords
Metal uptake
Zinc toxicity
Phytoremediation
Tolerance index
Lupin plants
Soil contamination
Funding
The principal author, Muhammad Ehsan, expresses his gratitude to the Governments of Pakistan and Mexico for awarding the doctoral scholarship, without which this research would not have been possible.
Conflict of interest
Muhammad Ehsan is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not involved in any way in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, either directly or indirectly. Separately, the other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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