Mechanism of Phytoremediation Potential of Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) to Pb, Cd and Zn

An experiment was conducted to study the efficiency of flax plant (Linum usitatissimum cv. Sakha) as phytoremediator for the contaminated metal soils with metals. The soil of experiment was enriched with different levels of Cd as (CdCl2), (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg soil), Pb as [Pb(CH3COOH)2], (150, 500 and 700 mg/kg soil) and Zn as (ZnSO4), (400, 800 and 1000 mg/kg soil) in addition to control. Results revealed that, a negative relationship was observed between the heavy metals concentrations and heights In addition to weights of both shoot and root at all growth stages. Results indicated that, increasing in metal concentration in the soil, there was a gradual increase in metal uptake in Flax plant. The average ability of flax plant to reduce heavy metals from the soil (removal %) was 49% for Cd, 68.6% for Pb and 71.76% for Zn. Subsequently, the highest accumulation of Cd was detected in root whereas, the highest accumulation of Pb and Zn detected in capsule. According to Bioaccumulation factor (BCF) and the translocation factor (TF) measured in this study, Flax could be considered as a hyperaccumulator plant for both Pb and Zn that each BCF and TF>1 and due to values of BCF which fairly close to 1 and TF which <1, Flax can therefore be considered a Cd excluder.

Author(s): Mohammed Elanwar Hosman, Soad Soliman El-Feky, Mohamed Ismail Elshahawy and Eman Mohamed Shaker

Abstract | PDF

Share This Article