Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

Due to large amount of release of heavy metals and other harmful substances into the soil, the level of contamination of soil and environment is increasing rapidly, as a result of which both the humans and other living organisms are suffering from serious problems. The most toxic metals include cadmium, copper, zinc, lead, mercury, chromium and nickel. As these metals are non-biodegradable, therefore removal of these contaminants has become a serious problem. Many types of conventional techniques have been used for remediation of metal contaminated soil such as filtration, acid bleaching, electrochemical process, ion exchange method, etc. But these processes are very expensive and also not much effective¹. To cope up with the problem of increasing toxicity in soil many bioremediation processes are introduced which are cost effective, reliable and proves to be very effective and productive method for the elimination of heavy metals. The most common method which is widely used for the removal of heavy metals from the soil is phytoremediation. This study reveals the use of properties of Chenopodium album for the phytoremediation process. The phytoremedial properties of the plant and its extract were utilized for the removal of heavy metals from the soil.