Toxic effluents containing azo dyes are discharged from various industries and they adversely affect water resources, soil fertility, aquatic organisms and ecosystem integrity. They pose toxicity (lethal effect, genotoxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity) to plants, aquatic organisms as well as animals. Considering the potential applications of bioremediation processes in wastewater treatment, the present investigation targets on the complete detoxification of Metanil Orange by phytotoxicity and cytotoxicity studies. Phytotoxicity studies indicated that the extracted metabolites (degraded dye) contains non-toxic metabolites, resulting in good germination rate as well as significant root and shoot length of S. vulgare and P. mungo when compared to dye sample (untreated), where inhibition in all these parameters was observed. Cytotoxicity assay using MCF-7 cell line confirmed the detoxification of Metanil Orange.

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