Abstract
This experiment aimed to determine the adaptability of four biodiesel-producing plants to gold mine wastewater based on morpho-physiological properties. Four species namely jatropha (Jatropha curcas), castor bean (Ricinus communis), wild candlenut (Reutealis trisperma) and bead tree (Melia azedarach) were grown in water culture using Hoagland solution for 2 weeks and then treated with gold mining wastewater at 0% (control), 25%, 50%, and 75% (v/v) for 3 weeks. Growth, anatomical and physiological characteristics were observed during the treatment. The results showed that gold mine wastewater significantly decreased growth of the four species despite varied among the species. Wastewater had significant effect on leaves anatomy of Jatropha but not on others. It also significantly induced the increase of malondialdehyde (MDA) content in Jatropha and castor bean, but not in wild candlenut and bead-tree. Meanwhile, the treatment significantly decreased chlorophyll content of all species with the most in bead-tree plant, and leaves relative water content (RWC) particularly in castor bean and bead-tree plants. There was strong negative correlation between the increase of MDA content and the decrease of chlorophyll content and leaf RWC. Among the four species, wild candlenut (R. trisperma) was the most resistant to gold mine wastewater based on morphological and physiological properties.
Highlights
Gold is one of the important commodities in the world economy which has triggered the growth of gold ore mining activities, both on large industrial scale as well as small artisanal/community scale
The results showed that gold mine wastewater significantly decreased growth of the four species despite varied among the species
Chemical Analysis of Wastewater Chemical analysis of wastewater from gold mines showed that the wastewater contained very high cyanide, which was 34.6 mg/l with medium level of Na and K, while the other compounds include heavy metals such as Pb, Cd and Hg were very low (Table 1)
Summary
Gold is one of the important commodities in the world economy which has triggered the growth of gold ore mining activities, both on large industrial scale as well as small artisanal/community scale. Gold mining activities often result in severe environmental pollution due to the use of chemical compounds for gold extractions such as cyanide (CN) as well as the accumulation of heavy metals such as lead and mercury (Hidayati et al 2009; Rodríguez et al 2009; Setyaningsih et al 2018b). According to Towill et al (1978) cyanide as an irreversible inhibitor of cytochrome-c-oxidase enzymes in the fourth complex of the mitochondrial membrane will be bound to iron which is a cofactor of proteins. This cyanide bond to the cytochrome enzyme will prevent electron transport from cytochrome-coxidase to oxygen, so that the electron transport chain is disrupted and these cells cannot produce ATP aerobically for their energy needs. Some efforts to reduce environmental pollution that may occurred due to cyanide contaminant need to be made
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