Eugene N Onyeike, Reginald C Ohiri, and Augustine A Uwakw
Hydrocarbon and heavy metal accumulation in Amarantus hybridus grown on crude oil post-remediated soil and its effect on the toxicological indices of Wistar albino rats was carried out. Eighteen square metre farmland was divided into three sites (A, B, C) of 4 m2 each and 2 m space was allowed in between the three sites. Two out of the 3 sites were polluted, bioremediated for 16 weeks and healthy seedling of Amarantus hybridus were planted on the three sites. The vegetables were grown for 28 days and their healthy leaves were harvested. The highest growth rate was observed in Amarantus hybridus grown on the bioaugmented soil for 4 weeks with values of 107.20 ± 12.25 cm, 61.69 ± 2.32 cm, 1.72 ± 0.31 g and 0.37 ± 0.02 g for height, leaf area, fresh weight and dry weight respectively. Amarantus hybridus leaves from natural attenuated soil had the highest aliphatic hydrocarbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and heavy metal with values of 9.78 ± 0.04 mgkg-1, 7.43 ± 0.09 mgkg-1 and 0.08 ± 0.00 g/100g for C29, Benzo(α)pyrene and Lead respectively. Thirty six healthy Wistar albino rats divided into 4 groups of 9 rats each (adult male, adult female, wealing male and wealing female) and sub-grouped into 3 were acclimatized for one week and fed with formulated feed pellet of 50% dry weight of Amarantus hybridus, from each of the three lots for 28 days. Assay of the toxicological indices of the test animals showed elevated concentrations of urea, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, alanine and aspartate aminotransferases, while a slight increase in amylase activity was observed in the animal. Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and haemoglobin concentration of the test animals decreased. These results were authenticated by the histological analysis of the liver, kidney and pancreas sections.
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