EVALUATION OF CADMIUM BIOACCUMULATION AND TRANSLOCATION IN JATROPHA CURCAS GROWN IN A CONTAMINATED SOIL

Cadmium (Cd) is a metal with high toxicity and solubility in water which is a serious environmental pollutant to human health. Phytoremediation is a promising new technology that uses plants to clean contaminated areas and it is known as a low cost and environmental friendly which can be used to clean up heavy metal contaminated soils. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of Jatropha curcas for remediation of soils contaminated with Cd. Seedlings were planted in soil spiked with Cd in amount of 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 mg kg-1 (Cd0, Cd1, Cd2, Cd3, Cd4 and Cd5) for a period of five months. The highest growth performance was recorded in control (Cd0). Cd concentrations among plant parts were in the following trend: roots>stems>leaves. In order to evaluate the potential of species selected as phytoremediator, three indicators were used namely, biocentration factor (BCF, metal concentration ratio of plant roots to soil), translocation factor (TF, metal concentration ratio of plant shoots to roots) and removal efficiency (RE, total concentrations of metal and dry biomass of plants to total loaded metal in growth media). The highest total Cd concentration (1125.68 ± 42.13 mg kg-1) and total Cd removal based on total dry biomass (1.17 ± 0.08%) were found in Cd5 and Cd1, respectively. J. curcas showed high bioconcentration factor (BCFs>1) and low translocation factor (TFs<1). Hence, it may be inferred that this species has a potential to be used in phytoremediation of Cd-contaminated soil.

Keywords:

Phytoremediation , Jatropha curcas , Heavy metals , Soil pollution , Removal efficiency