Measurement of alpha activity from leaves and roots of radish plant enhanced by fertilizers

Abstract

The addition of inorganic phosphate fertilizers to soil and crops is a common practice for increasing crop production in worldwide. The fertilizers in soil causes an increase in the radionuclides content along with the essential nutrients that can transfer from soil to various parts of plants. The aim of this work is to measure the alpha activity from various part of radish plant. The measurement of alpha activity was performed by track etch technique using LR-115 detectors. The results show that the alpha track density from lower part of leaves is higher than that from upper part. The alpha track density from upper and lower part of leaves varied from 12 ± 1.9 to 40.8 ± 1.9 tr cm−2 and 16 ± 2.2 to 51.3 ± 3.3 tr cm−2 respectively while it varied from 45 ± 4 to 135 ± 4 tr cm−2 for edible part of plants. With age of plants the radionuclide contents continuously get accumulated in the different part of plant and hence increase in alpha track density was observed during present work. The track density for plants grown with phosphate fertilizers was found to be higher compare to organic and urea fertilizers. Keywords: Radish plant, Alpha activity, Track etch technique, Fertilizers