H. Mirshekali, H. Hadi, H. Khodaverdiloo, R. Amirnia,
Volume 18, Issue 67 (Spring 2014)
Abstract
Heavy metals contamination of soil and plants has very important and vital role in relation to health and life of human
and other organisms. The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and sommon
lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) in phytoremediation of Zn from soil. Efficiency of 0.01M CaCl2, 0.1M NaNO3, and
1M NH4NO3 for extraction of “bioavailable fraction of soil Zn was also compared. Correlation between the Zn
concentrations extracted by these methods and plants response (relative yield and shoot Zn concentration) to soil Zn
contamination was then evaluated. For this purpose, a calcareous soil sample was contaminated with different
concentrations of Zn. Sorghum and common lambsquarter, were grown in pots containing the contaminated soil and
were analysed for their Zn concentrations after harvest. Results of this study showed that, common lambsquarter was
more tolerant to low and medium concentrations (≤900 mg/kg), but sorghum tolerated high concentration of Zn. Also
sorghum was more capable in removal of Zn from soil in comparison to common lambsquarter, so that soils
contaminated with low Zn levels (≤900 mg/kg) can be remediated by sorghum. In addition, there was a significant
correlation between 1 M NH4NO3-extractable soil Zn and the plants response (relative yield and shoot Zn concentration)
to soil Zn contamination.
