Bromide Tolerance in Plants: A Case Study on Halophytes of Indian Coast

The uptake of bromide and the effect of its accumulation on growth of some marshy halophytic species of Indian coast have been investigated. The species selected for this study are Salicornia brachiata, Suaeda nudiflora and Salvadora persica which were grown with NaBr solution along with other essential nutrients. The growth in S. brachiata, S. nudiflora and S. persica was more or less same except for some apparent morphological differences in NaBr grown plants as compared to that in NaCl fed plants. The bromide present in various parts of these plants was extracted by simple and eco-friendly techniques for the first time. A reliable spectrophotometric method was developed and employed to determine the bromide composition in all plant extracts. The accumulation of elements (Na, K Ca and Mg) was confirmed by ICP-AES technique. The bromide accumulation levels recorded were about 0.086-0.2 g in the root, 0.175 - 0.443 g in stem and 0.287-0.432 g in leaves per g of dry plant material, showing their hyper tolerance. The plants could tolerate bromide ion to a considerable level and at higher levels it affected the photosynthetic activity. Cultivation of these plants for reclamation of bromide affected soils could be tried as an alternate.