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A Study on Cadmium Phytoremediation Potential of Water Lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L.

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Abstract

Aquatic macrophytes have tremendous potential for remediation of the heavy metal cadmium. The objective of this study was to investigate Cd phytoremediation ability of water lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L. The study was conducted with 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg L−1 CdCl2 in hydroponic system for 21 days and the Cd concentrations in the root and shoot tissues were estimated by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The values obtained were used to evaluate the bioconcentration factor (BCF), translocation factor (TF) and translocation efficiency of this plant. The plant showed high Cd tolerance of up to 20 mg L−1 but there was a general trend of decline in the root and shoot biomass. The maximum BCF values for root and shoot tissues were 2,294 and 870 respectively, obtained for 5 mg L−1 Cd, which indicated that the plant was a Cd hyperaccumulator. The TF maxima was found to be 0.6 and as much as 60 % root to shoot translocation efficiency was observed for 15 mg L−1 Cd which points towards the suitability of water lettuce for removing Cd from surface waters.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and the Assam University authority for their support.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and all the experiments in this study comply with the current laws of India and have recommendation of Assam University Ethical Board.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar, 788011, India

    Suchismita Das, Sunayana Goswami & Anupam Das Talukdar

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  1. Suchismita Das
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  2. Sunayana Goswami
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  3. Anupam Das Talukdar
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Correspondence to Suchismita Das.

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Suchismita Das and Sunayana Goswami have contributed equally towards the paper.

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Das, S., Goswami, S. & Talukdar, A.D. A Study on Cadmium Phytoremediation Potential of Water Lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L.. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 92, 169–174 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-013-1152-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-013-1152-y

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