Morphological and physiochemical changes of jojoba under water pollution stress condition

Abstract

Water security is a major challenge for agricultural sustainability in Egypt. To tackle water scarcity, the reuse of wastewater such as raw agricultural drainage water (RADW) and treated sewage drainage water (TSDW) can be a potential solution. An investigation was conducted over two seasons (2022 and 2023) for 5 months (January–May) on roughly 8-month-old jojoba plants to study their tolerance for irrigation with different concentrations of wastewater (RADW, TSDW) at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% compared to the control (tap water). The study examined the effect of wastewater irrigation on growth parameters such as plant height, stem diameter, shoot numbers, leaf physical measurements, visual quality (VQ) and leaf chemical components including heavy metals (HMs), antioxidant capacity (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl [DPPH]), ion leakage (IL%), superoxide anion (O2 •−), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA), leaf minerals, pigments, soluble carbohydrate content (SCC), total phenolic content (TPC) and proline performance in jojoba plants. The findings indicated that jojoba plants can tolerate irrigation with RADW up to a concentration of 100% and TSDW up to a concentration of 75%.