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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/ETERM/43
Analysing the phytoextraction potential of sorghum for arsenic, cadmium and atrazine

Kashif Nazir Qureshi1*, Shakeel Imran1, Muhammad Yahya Khan1
1UAF Sub-Campus Burewala, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Correspondence: kashif.qureshi@uaf.edu.pk
Abstract

Various toxic heavy metals including arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) could not be destroyed
and elimination of elevated level of such metals especially from soil is necessary as such
contaminated soils represent potential ecological and human health risks. Pesticide
contamination such as atrazine along with heavy metals further aggravates such risks.
Phytoextraction is one of the strategies of phytoremediation, recommended to the uptake and
transfer of metal toxins in soil by plants’ roots into upper ground portions of plants.
Phytoextraction is one of the cost-effective strategies, recommended to the uptake and transfer
of metal toxins in soil by plants’ roots into upper ground portions of plants. The current study
has been designed to estimate potential of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) for the
phytoextraction of arsenic, cadmium and atrazine. Seeds of selected plant were sown in pots
where contaminated environment was created by irrigating the soil with different integrated
mixtures of As (100 ppm, 200 ppm), Cd (200 ppm) and Atrazine (100 ppm). The results show
that increased degree of phytoextraction of cadmium as well as atrazine was detected by
sorghum plants. Nevertheless, Sorghum showed poor responses of growth at contaminated
treatments of As, Cd and atrazine experiencing lesser phytoextraction.
Key words: Phytoextraction, Co-contamination, Sorghum, Heavy metals, Atrazine

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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