Revista de biorremediación y biodegradación

Abstracto

Phytoremediation of Cadmium from Polluted Soil

Rekha Kathal, Priti Malhotra and Vidhi Chaudhary

An increase in the concentrations of heavy metals in the environment from year to year has become a serious environmental concern. Technology development, anthropogenic and industrial activities lead to emission of heavy metals and their accumulation in ecosystem. Heavy metals such as Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Lead (Pb) and Mercury (Hg) are toxic to organisms. Due to their non-degradable and persistence in nature, these elements cause serious health problems in human beings and animals through food chain. Therefore, the cleanup of contaminated sites is mandatory for the removal of these potentially damaging substances from soil and water. Although several engineering based methods are already being used to remediate metal contaminated soils but they destroy the biotic components of soil, causes secondary pollution and are expensive to implement. In contrast, Phytoremediation has emerged out as a low cost effective, environment friendly technology in which plants and their associated microbial flora are used to remediate metal ions from polluted areas. In the present study, an attempt has been made to remediate Cadmium concentration from the polluted soil with the help of plant. Cadmium is one of the most toxic elements, which affect the kidney, bones and lungs of human beings. In the present study, soil and plant samples were collected from the different locations containing industrial wastes and tested for cadmium concentration using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). A significant decline in Cd concentration was observed in pot soil, in which Brassica juncea was grown under green house conditions. Furthermore, higher concentration of Cd concentration in the harvested plant as compared to the seeds, justify the ability of B. juncea to remediate toxic Cd and control soil pollution.