ISSN 2360-7955
Abstract
Accepted 17th September, 2014
The present study is dealing with the development of a phytoremediation system such as using the herbal plant ryegrass, Lolium multiflorum as excluder plant to investigate its ability to exclude the two metals, copper and zinc from contaminated soil. The plant was grown in different levels of metals-contaminated soil. The translocation of metals in the plant was compared considering root to shoot transport and redistribution of metals in the root and shoot system. The trace metal contents from root and shoot parts were determined using atomic absorption spectrometer. The results showed that the percent of copper transferred to ryegrass plant was 96.01%, while the remained percentage in soil was 3.99% following 60 days of treatment. On the other hand, the percent of zinc transferred to ryegrass plant was 84.51%, while the remained percentage in soil was 15.49% following the same time interval. The soil-plant transfer index in root and shoot system of ryegrass was found to be 0.60 and 0.37, respectively. However these values in case of zinc were 0.51 and 0.32, respectively. These findings indicated that ryegrass is a promising excluder plant and able to exclude either copper or zinc from soil.
Keywords: Phytoremediation, metals, copper, zinc, ryegrass plant, excluder