The Boron Tolerance of Vetiver Grass Used for Phytoremediation of Boron-Polluted Soils

Abstract

Soil pollution is a significant environmental issue with various causes and consequences. Many industrialized and non-industrialized countries are faced with economic and ecological problems due to toxic element contaminations in soil environments. Especially, soils contaminated with toxic metals pose a major environmental and human health problem that needs an effective and affordable technological solution. Phytoremediation is a process that uses plants to clean up contaminated soil, water, or air. It is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for mitigating pollution and is often used in situations where traditional cleanup methods are impractical or too expensive. Vetiver grass is a type of perennial grass native to India. It is widely cultivated for various purposes and has several valuable characteristics such as erosion control and soil improvement. In this study, the tolerance of vetiver grass at phytoremediation of boron polluted soil was examined. For this purpose, to determine the tolerance of the vetiver plant to boron, B from H3BO3 was applied to the soil at concentrations of 0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200, 300, 400 mg B/kg. The results showed that the increase in boron concentration applied to the soil negatively affected plant growth and significant losses in plant height and weight and no growth was observed in plants above 40 mg/kg boron concentration.