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Assessing Phytoremediation Potential of the Plant: Palma Amaranth

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This paper is aimed at assessing the phytoremediation ability of the plant Palma amaranth naturally. To achieve this, fresh samples of soil and the plant were collected from automobile mechanical workshop in Gombe state Metropolis. Collection were made in the morning hours, this was to get the plants fresh. These were separated in root, stem and leaves. Soil from the surface to sub-surface portion beneath the root of plant were collected, dried ground and sieved. This was then digested using aqua regia (HCl:HNO3 in the ration of 3:1) the plant sample were equally treated but with 6m HCl. Both digested samples were then analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) model AA240FS for the metals; Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn. The results indicate that, the soil has the highest concentration of; 0.290 ±0.037, 0.163 ±0.017, 0.512 ±0.006, 1.816 ±0.011, 0.295 ±0.017 and 0.334 ±0.022 for the metals; Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr and Ni respectively. Variation in the levels of the metals was observed in the different parts of the plants. The stem has the highest concentration of Zn (0.691 ±0.026) followed by the leaves, 0.644 ±0.009. High level of Cu (0.144 ±0.039) was found in the leaves that of Pb, Ni, and Cr (0.174 ±0.005, 0.069 ±0.005 and 0.046 ±0.035 respectively) were found in the root. All measurements were made in μg/g units. Copper has the translocation factor (TF) of 3.254, Zn has 3.550 whereas their enrichment coefficient (EC) are; 1.178 and 2.607 respectively. The rest of the elements have the TF and EC values less than one. For having TF and EC values greater than one, Palma amaranth may not serve as a good phytoextractor or phytostabilizer for the metals determined but rather a good metal excluder or metal indicator especially for Cu and Zn.
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