PHYTOREMEDIATION OF IRON CONTAMINATED SOIL BY WATERLEAF (Talinum triangulare (Jacq) Willd) IN JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Phytoremediation, Iron, Water leaf.Abstract
Phytoremediation is an environmentally friendly approach which involves plants for removal of
contaminants from polluted soil. The objective of this study therefore was to evaluate the
effectiveness of water leaf (Talinum triangulare) in extraction of iron (Fe) from contaminated
soil. The research consisted of the following treatments: 0, 26, 52, 78, 104, 130 and 156 Fe
mg/kg of soil. Iron nitrate was used as the source of iron. The plant data collected were leaf and
flower count, plant height, stem diameter, number of branches, shoot weight, the root weight and
iron concentration in the shoot. These were analyzed using analysis of variance and the Fisher’s
pairwise comparisons. The result showed that there was no significant effect of treatments on
growth parameters except for leaf count. Plants that received 130 (Fe mg/kg) had significantly
higher leaf count probably due to higher amount of nitrogen supplied by iron nitrate. There was
significance difference in iron concentration in the shoots of water leaf plants among the various
treatments when compared to the control. Mean maximum extraction of iron was 5815 mg/kg
with a standard deviation of 16.51. Lower leaf count and amounts of iron extracted at higher
concentration of iron in the soils are probably due to unset of iron toxicity in the water leaf plants.
This indicates that water leaf plants possess great potential in phyto-extraction of iron and other
heavy metals from contaminated soil.
