The effect of kinetin on the chlorophyll pigments content in leaves of Zea mays L. seedlings and accumulation of some metal ions

In this work the relationship between the accumulation of some metals, the content of chlorophyll a and b in leaves of Zea mays L. plants, growth of seedlings and concentration of kinetin in medium has been studied. The experiments were carried out with 7-day old maize plants grown on the Hoagland’s medium. The seedlings were exposed to the solution containing kinetin in different concentration (10−9÷10−5 mol · dm−3). The accumulation of metals in maize leaves was measured by emission spectroscopy using the spectrometer with excitation by argon inductively coupled plasma technique (ICP-OES). The amount of chlorophyll pigment was determined by the spectrophotometer UV-Vis. The study shows that kinetin changes the uptake and accumulation of metal ions in leaves of maize plants, changes the growth of seedlings, has influence on the seeds germinations and productivity of fresh and dry mass, and decreases the chlorophyll pigments content in leaves of Zea mays L.