Bioremediation Potential of Brassica Juncea against Tannery Effluent

Heavy metal contamination caused by natural processes or by human activity is one of the serious ecotoxicological problems. Phytoremediation is an emerging plant based technology for the removal of toxic contaminants from the soil and water. It is relatively invasive and provides a low-cost remedial option suited too many sites. The present study is focused to remediate heavy metal contamination from tannery effluents using the plant Brassica juncea. The leather tanning effluent was found to have high pH indicating alkalinity of the sample with a large amount of suspended solids and dissolved salts of sodium, potassium, chromium, zinc, cadmium and copper. Brassica juncea was grown as a control plant using pure water used in the tanning industry and also using three different dilutions of the tannery effluent (25%, 50% and 100% concentrations of the effluent). The biometric and biochemical observations of the plants were recorded on 30th and 60th days after sowing. Undiluted effluent did not favour the growth of the plants and the few germinated plants died soon. The plants treated with diluted effluents were found to have lower pigments, protein, DNA and RNA in the leaves as compared to the control plants. The 25% concentration was found to be better for plants than 50% concentration of the effluent