Phytoextraction of zinc contaminated water by <i>Tagetes minuta</i> L

Abstract

The heavy metals like zinc affect the aquatic and terrestrial environments in a number of ways which are currently well established. The practice of treating contaminated water and soil at low cost is continually gaining attention in developing countries. The phytoremediation technique is the most effective and low cost as compared to other technologies and also it is environment friendly. It is used to remove pollutants such as heavy metals from both water and soil. The experiment was based on two objectives i.e. to evaluate how marigold helps in phytoremediation of zinc from wastewater and secondly, to study the growth parameters under zinc metal stress. In this experiment, the marigold plant was used to remove zinc from synthetic wastewater at different concentrations (0, 100, 200, 300, and 400 µM). The experiment was done in different steps including plant collection, growth in a controlled environment, pre-analysis, post-analysis, drying, separation of parts, grinding digestion, filtration, and metal detection by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Zinc accumulation was checked by the detection of zinc metal in roots, shoots, and leaves of plants. Effects of zinc were analyzed by measurement of plant height, root length, and the number of leaves counting before and after zinc treatment and the result of zinc accumulation was obtained by atomic absorption spectrophotometer in each part of the plant. In roots zinc found in the range of (5.67 to 17.37) in stem (4.81 to 9.33) and in leaves (3.3 to 8.37) according to given treatments. This plant has zinc accumulation capacity and it is useful to treat zinc contaminated site.