Study on the accumulation of copper from soil by shoots and roots of some selective plant species

Abstract

Phytoextraction, the use of plants to extract toxic metals from contaminated soils, has emerged as a cost effective, environment friendly clean up alternative. The present study aimed to find a suitable plants species for use in cleaning up Cu from copper contaminated soil. Soil is artificially polluted by different concentration of Cu and the effects were studied in four verities of plant Triticumaestivum L (corn),Abelmoschusesculentus L, Basella alba L, and Solanumlycopersicum L (vegetables) from different family Poaceae, Malvaceae, Basellaceae and Solanaceae respectively those usually abundantly grow in Bangladesh. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) was used for analysis of heavy metal in soil and plant samples.Results demonstrated that plant species were differing significantly in Cu uptake. Wheat plants (Triticumaestivum L) were more tolerant to the conditions tested with the highest dry matter production and no visual toxicity symptoms. The efficiency of Cu uptake from soil by Triticumaestivum L was observed by roots (803.14 mg kg-1) and shoots (418.43 mg kg-1). Triticumaestivum L totally accumulated 1221.57 mg kg -1 in dry weight and demonstrated as a hyper accumulator, other plants were not accumulated copper as higher as wheat. Thus Triticumaestivum L can be used for remediation of Cu polluted area.