Phytoremediation Capacity Assessment of Copper (Cu) and Lead (Pb) Contaminated Soils Using Helianthus annuus L. (sunflower plant)

Authors

  • Kyra Carmina O. Chatto
  • Patrisha Ysabel T. Dizon
  • Sofia Edzel O. Bermal

Keywords:

copper, contaminated soil, phytoremediation

Abstract

Heavy metal contamination is an overlooked, dangerous by-product of pollution that harms human and environmental health. Phytoremediation is a proven cheap alternative to cleaning up heavy metals. To significantly contribute to heavy metal pollutant research, this paper aims to assess the phytoremediation capability of the plant sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) against two prominent heavy metals, Cu and Pb, using artificially infused and naturally-contaminated soils. Two sets of experiments were performed wherein healthy soil from Trece Martires, Cavite was used for the artificially infused setup and soil was collected from Binakayan, Cavite for the naturally contaminated soil setup. Initial AAS analysis for the two setups revealed 2.14mg/kg Pb and 6.22mg/kg Cu were present in the artificially infused set-up while 2.03mg/kg Pb and 5.17mg/kg Cu were present in the naturally contaminated setup. Sunflower seeds were planted on both setups to determine the phytoremediation capability assessment of the specimen.In the naturally-contaminated soil, compared to the pre-analysis(mean of 4.615mg/L, SD 0.085mg/L), post analysis has significantly less heavy metal content (mean of 2.265mg/L, SD 0.035mg/L, p<0.005, t>2.132). Another whois in the metal-infused set-up, compared to the pre-analysis (mean of 4.18mgL, SD 0.165mg/L), post analysis also has significantly less heavy metal content (mean of 3.41mg/L, SD 0.1mgL, p<0.035, t>2.132). Overall, this study demonstrated that sunflower couldbe a promising phytoremediation plant against copper and lead contamination. Further in-depth studies should focus on (1) determining the biomolecular, metal-specific, phytoremediating mechanism of sunflower; and (2) further assess the phytoremediating property of fully-grown sunflowers through optimised experiments.

Published

2018-05-18