Effect of Fungal Pretreatment on the Capacity of Parthenium Leaves Biomass to Adsorb Certain Netals

Rapid industrialization has led to increase disposal of heavy metals into the environment. The tremendous increase in use of heavy metals over the past few decades has inevitably resulted in an increased flux of metallic substances in the aquatic environment. The metals are of special concern because of their persistency. Industrial waste constitutes the major source of various kinds of metal pollution in natural water. Many physicochemical methods have been proposed for their removal from industrial effluents. Adsorption is one of the alternative and is an effective purification and separation technique used in industry especially in water and wastewater treatments. The present study was carried out to investigate the possibilities of utilization of Parthenium leaves for use in the biosorption of Lead and Copper. An attempt was also made to find out the effect of fungal colonization on the biosorption of metals by leaves of Parthenium hysterophorus.The result indicated that Parthenium leaf biomass is quite effective material for the biosorption of both the metals studied. Inoculation with Aspergillus oryzae led to substantial decrease in the capacity of the Parthenium leaf biomass to adsorb Copper and Lead.