The Possibility of Use of Oil Seed Plants and Grasses for Phytoremediation

Abstract

The possibility of using oilseed plants which have great biomass and have ability to accumulate large amounts of heavy metals is discussed. It was studied the metal accumulation ability of sunflower plants (Helianthus annus L.) and mixture grass species of Poa pratensis, Lolium perenne, and Festuca rubra, grown on the territory of the metallurgic plants in East Kazakhstan. It was showed that Zn in the plant parts studied species is accumulated in greatest amount, but Cd is found in the lowest amount. The shoot/root ratio of Cd and Cu in sunflower was higher than that of Zn and Pb, and, on the contrary, for grass species the shoot/root ratio of Pb and Zn was greatest as compare to Cd and Cu. The percentage of Pb was greatest in the shoots and roots of the studied plants, and the smallest percentage of Cd was also found. The removal of Cu and Cd by shoots of sunflower was more and the removal of Pb and Zn was lower than that of lawn grasses. The degree of soil purification by sunflower plants was higher for all metals tested than for lawn grasses. It was concluded that sunflower plants can be successfully used for phytoremediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals in Kazakhstan Anthropogenic pollutants, like heavy metals, are one of the prevailing polluting agents that cause various human diseases, entering to the organisms through food chain through contamination of vegetation and soil. The search for effective methods of remediation of technogeneously polluted soils is an important environmental problem in Kazakhstan. Actuality of the problem is connected with the contamination of the soil with heavy metals, in particular the area around the metallurgical plants and tailing dumps. One of the ways to prevent pollution of the environment is phytoremediation. The use of plant hyperaccumulators in phytoremediation process in Kazakhstan has some limitations like the low biomass of these plants and the absence of plant species hyperaccumulators of heavy metals adaptive to local environment. The possibility of using oilseed plants which have great biomass and have ability to accumulate large amounts of heavy metals is discussed. The cereal grass species which are tolerant to high concentrations of heavy metals in soils may be considered as phytoremediants of polluted soils. The ability to accumulate great biomass of aboveground organs and roots and capability of accumulating great amounts of Pb, Zn, Cu, and Cd of sunflower plants, planted on the territory of metallurgic factory, were shown. The ability of grass species to accumulate large amounts of heavy metals mainly in the roots is discussed.