article · HortScience
Salix mucronata, also known as Salix safsaf, demonstrates strong potential for cleaning up soil contaminated with cadmium, copper, and lead. In experimental trials, the plant maintained a one hundred percent survival rate even under high soil concentrations of these metals, reaching up to 80 milligrams per kilogram of cadmium chloride, 200 milligrams per kilogram of copper chloride, and 850 milligrams per kilogram of lead acetate. Although exposure to these heavy metals negatively affected vegetative growth and chemical parameters, increased antioxidant enzyme activity helped counteract oxidative injury. The plants accumulated cadmium, copper, and lead predominantly in their roots, followed by stems and leaves. This preferential storage pattern minimises the risk of secondary environmental contamination caused by seasonal leaf fall, indicating that the species is a viable candidate for heavy metal phytoremediation programmes.
Heavy metal pollution in soils presents severe ecological risks and challenges for environmental rehabilitation. Utilising plants to extract toxic contaminants provides a sustainable and environmentally friendly cleanup strategy. Because Salix mucronata sequesters the majority of accumulated cadmium, copper, and lead within its root structures rather than its foliage, it prevents toxic ions from easily re-entering the surrounding ecosystem during seasonal leaf shedding.
The research could enable nature-based soil decontamination services for environmental remediation practitioners and land managers dealing with industrial metal contamination. Because the findings derive from testing plant tolerance, biochemical reactions, and accumulation rates under controlled concentrations, the work represents early-stage research that requires larger-scale field trials before it can be applied in commercial remediation projects.
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Phytoremediation is an environmentally friendly and effective method of reducing contaminating ions to very low levels. In this study, the effects of different concentrations of cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) on vegetative growth and the chemical and biochemical compositions of Salix mucronata as well as the potential for phytoextraction of these metals by plant organs were investigated. S. mucronata had the highest survival percentage (100%) in the presence of CdCl 2 , CuCl 2 , and Pb acetate up to 80, 200, and 850 mg·kg −1 in soil, respectively. A negative influence of these metals on vegetative and chemical parameters was observed relative to the control plants. The potential role of antioxidant enzymes in protecting plants from oxidative injury was examined by analyzing the antioxidant enzyme activities of plants grown in contaminated and control soils. Enzymatic activities and electrolyte leakage were higher in the plants grown in soil with increasing heavy metals than in the control plants. The bioconcentrating efficiency of Cd, Cu, and Pb in plant organs was estimated to be medium [bioconcentration factor (BCF) of 1–0.1]; an exception was the BCF of Cu in the roots, which was estimated to be intensive (BCF < 1). Concentrations of 60 mg·kg −1 CdCl 2 , 50 mg·kg −1 CuCl 2 , and 650 mg·kg −1 Pb acetate caused significantly higher translocation compared with other levels of each pollutant. The biomass tolerance index was less than 1. Additionally, S. mucronata accumulated Cd, Cu, and Pb in the following order: roots > stems > leaves. Therefore, the risk of contamination through leaf fall can be minimized. Therefore, S. mucronata could be a good candidate for phytoremediation of Cd-, Cu-, and Pb-contaminated soil.
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DOI: 10.21273/hortsci14018-19
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