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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Ameliorative Effect of Exogenously Applied Zinc
on Cadmium-Stressed Sunflower
(Helianthus annuus L.) by Modulating
Growth, Photosynthetic Activity, Polyphenolic
Compounds, and Yield Indices
1
Department of Botany, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, 38040 Faisalabad, Pakistan
2
College of Agriculture, Al-Qadisiyah University, Iraq
3
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, 38040 Faisalabad, Pakistan
4
Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University,
P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
5
Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
6
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, TX, USA
7
Wheat Research Institute, Ayub Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
8
Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Submission date: 2024-05-09
Final revision date: 2024-08-28
Acceptance date: 2024-09-13
Online publication date: 2025-02-25
Publication date: 2025-11-04
Corresponding author
Athar Mahmood
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, 38000, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, 38000, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(6):7335-7348
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is a type of annual plant that belongs to the Asteraceae family.
However, various kinds of abiotic stresses, especially metal toxicity (Cd), substantially reduce its
growth. The frequent release of mine and industrial wastewater as well as the overuse of chemical
fertilizers are the main causes of this hazardous metal’s rising proliferation. At the same time, even
though plants have a robust defense against Cd toxicity, they are unable to combat greater levels of
the metal’s toxicity. Meanwhile, it has been demonstrated that applying zinc can significantly reduce
the hazardous effects of cadmium. Therefore, the present experiment aimed to investigate the
positive impacts of Zn application (0, 50, and 100 ppm) on the sunflower variety “FH-516” to combat
Cd stress as an eco-friendly approach. Heavy metal (Cd) toxicity curtailed the root length, shoot length,
leaf area, chlorophyll a/b ratio, 100-seed weight, and biological yield up to 32.03%, 27.03%, 26.1%,
31.33%, 34.46%, and 22.37%, respectively. Exogenous application of zinc significantly improved the Cd-induced losses and increased the root length (37.9%), shoot length (48.4%), leaf area (56.2%),
chlorophyll a/b ratio (65.64%), 100-seed weight (66.98%), and biological yield (74.04%). Mineral
ions, e.g., Na+, of root and shoot (61.02% and 29.42%) increased under Cd stress, whereas K+ and
Ca2+ decreased due to Cd toxicity in both root and shoot. Generally, the application of zinc improved
the polyphenolic compounds and ion contents of plants under stressed conditions. At the same time,
the application of Zn (100 ppm level as compared to 50) substantially increased the flavonoid contents
up to 92.92% as compared to anthocyanin contents of 52.11% in Cd-stressed plants. Current findings
reveal that using zinc could be an effective strategy against abiotic stresses and could be suggested for
the decontamination of mild to moderately contaminated soils containing Cd.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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