Shaik Umme Salma* and AT Ramachandra Naik
Heavy metals are environmental pollutants and their toxicity is a problem in increasing significance of ecological, evolutionary and nutritional reasons. They are ubiquitous in environment and higher concentrations poses serious threat to the aquatic ecosystem. The remediation of aquatic environment by aquatic plants known as phytoremediation is an emerging area of research. Hence, an effort was made to understand the role of aquatic fern Azolla pinnata in absorption and level of accumulation so as to understand the extent of phytoremediation value in aquatic environmental studies.
Accumulation profile of heavy metals in Azolla pinnata exposed to 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% dilutions of sewage and aquaculture effluents was carried out. Atomic absorption spectrophotometric analysis of sewage effluent accumulation in Azolla pinnata showed initial concentration of metals such as Pb and Zn, were 0.085 and 0.060 ppm respectively. After 42 days of exposure, then metals were accumulated in Azolla pinnata concentration to an extent of 0.933 and 0.074 ppm respectively. The order of concentration accumulated in the plant is Pb>Zn. The plant when exposed to aquaculture effluent, the accumulation concentration of Pb and Zn were 0.853 and 0.914 ppm in the order of Zn>Pb. Results revealed that the accumulation of heavy metals in test plant varied with different effluents concentrations and the duration of exposure was unfirmed that it is directly proportional to its concentration. It is evident from the present investigation that Azolla pinnata could be used as phyto-tool for remediation of heavy metals from different effluents. In order to confirm the exact amount of accumulation of heavy metals, various other effluents could be exposed to varieties of plants which are having phytoremediation may be experimented.
Published Date: 2024-07-21; Received Date: 2024-03-14
