Abstract:

Zea mays commonly referred to as maize or corn is a member of the family poaceae. It is a robust monoecious annual plant cultivated throughout the world. Uncontrolled usage of pesticides can lead to the development of oxidative stress in plant tissues. The present study evaluates the effect of pesticides applications on the oxidative and antioxidative status of yellow and white( Zea mays) seedlings. Dry seeds of Zea mays were imbibed for 24hrs and sprinkled with 100mg/L of pesticides ( attacke, imiforce, sniper and perfect killer ). The control sample was sprinkled with distilled water. The seed was allowed to germinate for 24 and 72 hrs duration. Buffer solutions were used to extract the enzymes and their oxidative and antioxidative status were evaluated using visible spectrophotometer at their respective wavelengths. The result showed that perfect killer, imiforce, attacke, and sniper pesticides all increased as the concentration of peroxidase (POD), Lacase, Total phenol(TP), Malondialdehyde (MDA),Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and Ascorbic acid increased significantly with respect to time.The result suggests that application of pesticides in Zea mays, can lead to oxidative stress.