Organic Cultivation of Tomato in India with Recycled Slaughterhouse Wastes: Evaluation of Fertilizer and Fruit Safety

Malancha Roy, Rimi Das, Amit Kundu, Sanmoy Karmakar, Satadal Das, Pradip Kumar Sen, Anupam Debsarcar and Joydeep Mukherjee
Additional contact information
Malancha Roy: School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Rimi Das: School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Amit Kundu: Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Sanmoy Karmakar: Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Satadal Das: Peerless Hospital and B K Roy Research Center, Kolkata 700094, India
Pradip Kumar Sen: Department of Mathematics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Anupam Debsarcar: Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Joydeep Mukherjee: School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India

Agriculture, 2015, vol. 5, issue 3, 1-31

Abstract: Environmental and health safety of recycled slaughterhouse wastes-derived fertilizer and the produce obtained through its application is not well understood. Waste bovine blood and rumen digesta were mixed, cooked and sun-dried to obtain bovine-blood-and-rumen-digesta-mixture (BBRDM, NPK 30.36:1:5.75). 1.26 ± 0.18 log CFU mL −1 fecal coliforms were recovered in BBRDM. E. coli O157:H7, Mycobacteria, Clostridium sp., Salmonella sp., Bacillus sp. and Brucella sp. were absent. No re-growth of pathogens was observed after 60 days storage in sealed bags and in the open. However, prions and viruses were not evaluated. Heavy metals (Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn, As, Ni, Mn) concentrations in BBRDM were within internationally permissible limits. BBRDM was applied for field cultivation of tomato during 2012–2013 and 2013–2014. Lycopene and nitrate contents of BBRDM-grown tomatoes were higher than Diammonium phosphate (DAP) + potash-grown tomatoes because BBRDM supplied 2.5 times more the amount of nitrogen than DAP (NPK 18:46:0) + potash (NPK 0:0:44). Heavy metals and nitrate/nitrite concentrations in tomatoes were within internationally acceptable limits. BBRDM-grown tomatoes showed no mutagenic activity in the Ames test. Sub-acute toxicity tests on Wistar rats fed with BBRDM-grown tomatoes did not show adverse clinical picture. Thus, no immediate environmental or health risks associated with BBRDM and the tomatoes produced were identified.

Keywords: Slaughterhouse; organic fertilizer; tomato; pathogen; lycopene; heavy metal; nitrate; nitrite; mutagen; sub-acute toxicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/5/3/826/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/5/3/826/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:5:y:2015:i:3:p:826-856:d:55862

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().