Potential of <i>Vigna unguiculata</i> as a Phytoremediation Plant in the Remediation of Zn from Contaminated Soil

Abstract

Population explosion in the last decades together with global industrialization has caused heavy-metal contamination of air, water and soil, resulting in diverse incurable effects on humans and on the stability of the ecosystem. Non-biodegradable heavy-metals can remain in the ecosystem and the threat associated with their bioaccumulation in food chains represents one of the major environmental and health problems of present day society. Several studies were carried out to understand the ecological effects of the heavy-metal Zn in soil-plant systems. Plants often have a zinc uptake that their systems cannot handle, due to the accumulation of zinc in soils. Of the several Zn toxicity symptoms, fatal are yield reduction, stunted growth, chlorosis, reduced chlorophyll synthesis and chloroplast degradation. Vigna unguiculata is an herbaceous, annual plant in the pea family Fabaceae. In the present study, an experiment was performed to evaluate the Zn phytoextracting ability of V. unguiculata under in vitro condition. We establish that V. unguiculata can uptake a considerable amount of the heavy-metal zinc and this phytoextraction property can be utilized in long run for the cleanup of zinc contaminated soil. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Zn phytoextraction ability of V. unguiculata .