Identification of organic pollutants and heavy metals in natural rubber wastewater and evaluation its phytotoxicity and cytogenotoxicity

The natural rubber industry consumes large volumes of water and annually releases wastewater with rich organic and inorganic loads. This wastewater is allowed for soil irrigation in developing countries. However, the pollutant composition in wastewater and its environmental effects remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to assess the wastewater's physicochemical parameters, toxic organic pollutants, heavy metals, and phytotoxic and cytogenotoxic. The result revealed that values of comprehensive wastewater parameters were recorded as chemical oxygen demand (187432.1 mg/L), pH (4.23), total nitrogen (1157.1 mg/L), ammonia nitrogen (1113.0 mg/L), total phosphorus (1181.2 mg/L), Zn (593.3 mg/L), Cr (0.6127 mg/L), and Ni (0.2986 mg/L). The organic compounds detected by LC-MS were salbostatin, sirolimus, Gibberellin A34-catabolite, 1-(sn-glycero-3-phospho)-1D-myo-inositol, and methyldiphenylsilane. The toxicity of the identified toxic chemicals and heavy metals was confirmed by onion and mung bean phytotoxicity characterization tests. The wastewater affected the germination of mung bean seeds, reduced or inhibited the growth of onions, and induced various chromosomal aberrations in root apical meristems. Our study shows that the treatment of natural rubber wastewater needs to be improved, and the feasibility of irrigating soil with wastewater needs to be reconsidered.