Effect of wastewater irrigation on soil, metal tolerance and its remediation by four oil yielding Brassica cultivars

The present study was assessed during the year 2010–11 and was aimed to identify the cultivars of Brassica as suggested for phytoremediation of heavy metals thus evaluate the impact of Aligarh city's wastewater on drymass yield of B.campestris cv. P. Gold, B. juncea cv. P. Bold, B. napus cv. GSL-1 and B. nigra cv. IC-247 with assessment of heavy metal bio-accumulation and translocation factor was also calculated. The result demonstrated that four cultivars of Brassica were differing significantly in concentration of heavy metals in their shoot and root, and none of them was hyperaccumulator, however the ability of these Brassica cultivars to tolerate and accumulate the heavy metals may be useful for phytostablization. The trend of metal concentration in shoots was Zn > Pb> Cu> Ni while in roots the order was Zn> Cu> Pb> Ni. Moreover wastewater irrigation resulted in increased drymass yield of four Brassica cultivars. Thus it may also be concluded that the wastewater may be reused profitably for the purpose of cultivation of mustard crops with respect to environment clean up strategies.