Abstract
Chromium is one of the major pollutants in water and soil. Thus, it is urgent to develop a new method for chromium removal from the environment. Phytoremediation is a promising approach for heavy metal pollution recovery. As a perennial giant grass with a fast growth rate, Pennisetum sinese has been widely used as livestock feed, mushroom culture medium and biomass energy raw material. Interestingly, we have found a high adsorption capacity of P. sinese for chromium. P. sinese was treated with different concentrations of chromium for 15 days. Results showed that P. sinese plantlets grew well under low concentrations (less than 500 μM) of chromium (VI). The plantlet growth was inhibited when treated with high concentrations of chromium (more than 1000 μM). Up to 150.99 and 979.03 mg·kg−1 DW of chromium accumulated in the aerial part and root, respectively, under a treatment of 2000 μM Cr. The bioaccumulation factor (BCF) of P. sinese varied from 10.87 to 17.56, and reached a maximum value at the concentration of 500 μM. The results indicated that P. sinese showed strong tolerance and high accumulation capability under Cr stress. Therefore, the chromium removal potential of P. sinese has a great application prospect in phytoremediation.
Highlights
Along with the increasing discharge of industrial waste, more and more heavy metals are accumulated in soil and water
Mature P. sinese stem cuts were purchased from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, and the propagation was later performed in our lab
Cr is a main source of heavy metal contamination, since it is widely present in the environment
Summary
Along with the increasing discharge of industrial waste, more and more heavy metals are accumulated in soil and water. Cr in different valence states shows different characteristics in chemistry, toxicology and epidemiology, and Cr (VI) is more toxic than Cr (III) because of its higher mobility [6,7,8]. It is not essential for plants, Cr may have hermetic effects on plant growth—it can promote the growth of water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes), with an increased yield at low concentrations [2,9,10,11]. It is urgent to develop efficient techniques for Cr removal from the environment
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