The assessment of phytoremediation potential of invasive weed Amaranthus spinosus L.

Presently the environment is heavily polluted by various toxic metals, which creates danger for all living beings. Heavy metals are toxic above certain threshold levels. Phytoremediation is an emerging technology which is quite a novel technique of cleaning polluted sites through the use of plants. Phytoremediation methods are comparatively cheap and ecologically advantageous, compared to conventional and physicochemical methods like precipitation, evaporation and chemical reduction. In this respect, plants can be compared to solar-driven pumps capable of extracting and concentrating certain elements from their environment. Amaranthus spinosus, an invasive weed seen on road sides and bare land belonging to the family Amaranthaceae, was selected for the present study. A greenhouse experiment was conducted and consisted of a range-finding test and definitive test for various concentrations of heavy metals Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb and Cd. Plants were grown in soil treated with different concentration of metals depending upon the threshold level. The bio-organics of the plant such as soluble sugar, protein, lipid, phenol, amino acid and photosynthetic pigments were estimated after 30 days of treatment. The bio-organics showed profound variation in response to accumulation of heavy metals. Accumulation of Cu, Pb and Cd was high in the roots followed by stem and leaves and that of Zn and Cr remained high in aerial parts. A steady increase was noticed in the bioaccumulation of copper, zinc and cadmium on enhancing the concentration of the corresponding metal in the soil. The bioconcentration factor and translocation factor were above unity in most of the treatments and increased as the concentration of treatment increased which indicated that A. spinosus is a potential agent for heavy metal accumulation and translocation.