Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Phytoextraction of Pb and Ni from the Polluted Soil by Brassica juncea L.

Abstract

Rekha Kathal, Priti Malhotra, Lalit Kumar and Prem Lal Uniyal

Phytoremediation is described as the treatment of environmental problems through the use of plants that mitigate the same without the need to excavate the contaminated material and dispose it elsewhere. Some plants proved to be popular organism for bio-monitoring to determine and identify the sources of heavy metal soil pollution and their detoxification by phytoextraction techniques. In the present work an attempt has been made to remediate Lead (Pb) and Nickel (Ni) from the polluted soil. Soil and plant (luxuriously growing as hyperaccumulator) samples were collected from the polluted sites to find out the extent of Pb and Ni accumulation in them. We found Saccharum, Brassica juncea, Tamarix and Ricinus as efficient accumulators of heavy metal from the soil. Accumulation of Pd was higher than Ni in soil samples from all the sites. For greenhouse experiment B. juncea was selected for Phytoremediation study. Results of AAS of digested samples of both plants and soils of greenhouse experiments showed that heavy metal content declined in pot soil after plants have been grown and harvested. B. juncea reduced 73.15% Pb and 60.13% Ni from their initial concentration in soil thereby proving itself to be a good accumulator of heavy metals and a remedy for controlling heavy metal soil pollution. Most important in phytoremediation is to use wild plants as accumulators in the greenhouse experiment as it minimizes the chances of biomagnification of heavy metals in food chain.