Exploration of lead accumulation and tolerance mechanism in bhringraj grown in a free-floating culture system

Department of Chemistry, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, Kollam, Kerala, India

^* Corresponding author: smithachandran@am.amrita.edu

Abstract

Significant threats to the environment and human health arise from contamination of heavy metals, especially in urban and industrial locations where conventional remediation methods are costly and intrusive.Phytoremediation is a sustainable and environmentally beneficial method for removing toxic contaminants in different environmental compartments. It uses the plant’s innate ability to absorb, stabilize, and detoxify heavy metals. Some plants are hyperaccumulators and have a high capacity for sequestering and absorbing lead, making them attractive options for phytoremediation. In the present work, we are exploring the effectiveness of a medicinal plant Ecliptaprostrata, in removing an insidious heavy metal, lead, from the contaminated environment. We had done a greenhouse study using Bhringaraj in a free-floating culture system spiked with different lead concentrations. The parameters analyzedinclude: chlorophyll content, carbohydrate, proline and heavy metal accumulation in the different plant parts in different time intervals. By improving Ecliptaprostrata’s lead accumulation and tolerance through the use of nanoparticles and chelating agents, along with advances in genetic engineering, phytoremediation becomes a more practical and efficient choice for large-scale lead decontamination.