Impact of automobile induced air pollution on the quality of Psidium guajava fruit.

An increase in the number of vehicles on the roads has made automobiles as the primary source of air pollution in metropolitan India, which has become the reason for concern. The goal of this work is to understand the degree of harm done to a common fruit, Psidium guajava , which was sampled from areas of Kolkata city that experience high amount of traffic (based on the air quality index). This study examined the effects of vehicular pollution by assessing a few biomarkers. The fruits sampled from Maidan and College Street (areas with higher AQI values) show poor amounts of nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, and minerals, as shown by the biochemical test of plant health markers. Compared to the control values, Maidan samples exhibited notable reductions in Vitamin B5 (42.86%), vitamin B6 (47.21%), Ascorbic Acid (55.56%), Phosphorus (42.45%), and Potassium (39.24%) concentrations. Chlorophyll content was approximately 11.48% lower, while MDA concentration showed a substantial increase. The components of essential oil have been investigated by GC-MS analysis from samples of different regions. It has been found that in the samples of Maidan area, which is the most polluted region, the chromatogram peaks (for butanoic acid and heptanoic acid) show least height as compared to control and other areas as well. The study results demonstrate that the guava fruit's nutritional value gets compromised due to exposure to exhaust from vehicles and also emphasize the significant impact of environmental factors across diverse locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]