TITLE:
Cadmium (Cd) Removal from Saline Water by Veronica anagallis and Epilobium laxum Plants in Hydroponic System
AUTHORS:
Fazal Hadi, Ayaz Ahmad, Nasir Ali
KEYWORDS:
Cadmium, Saline Water, Metal Phytoaccumulation, Veronica anagallis, Epilobium laxum
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.5 No.11,
September
11,
2014
ABSTRACT: Present study was conducted to investigate the Cadmium (Cd) phytoextraction
potential of two plants (Veronica anagallis-aquatic and Epilobium laxum Royle) for Cd removal from
induced saline water. In hydroponic system, various concentrations of the Cd (50,
100, and 150 ppm) and NaCl salt (1000, 3000, and 6000 ppm) were used alone and in
various combinations to evaluate the effect of salt (NaCl) concentrations on Cd
absorption and accumulation in Veronica anagallis and Epilobium plants. The Cd at higher
concentrations (100 and 150 ppm) significantly reduced the growth and biomass of
both plants and addition of salt (NaCl) to growth media (Hoagland solution) further
reduced the growth. The Cadmium (Cd) translocation factor (TF) of Epilobium plant was more than one (1), while
the Veronica plant showed translocation
factor less than 0.5. Veronica plant showed
higher Bio-concentration factor (BCF) as more than 3.5 and Epilobium plant demonstrated Bio-concentration factor less than 1 (BCF 1 is a threshold limit for a
plant to be hyper-accumulator of Cd). Conclusively, the Veronica anagallis plant is reported as Cd hyper-accumulator, while Epilobium laxum plant as non hyper-accumulator
on the basis of BCF values in the present findings. Further study on Veronica and Epilobium plants is recommended.