干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Decontamination of heavy metal polluted soil and water by plants is called phytoremediation. Succulent plant species such as Aloe vera (L.) are considered for the current study to investigate their ability to accumulate heavy metals and their uptake rate of different heavy metals are tested. This study aimed to measure the concentration of toxic heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Hg, and Ni) in arid contaminated soils of Saudi Arabia. The soil was contaminated with 1500 ppm of each element. During a year of the experiment, 4 samples were taken on a trimester basis. All samples were digested to measure heavy metal content in soil and plant. Metal Transfer Factor (MTF) and Translocation Factor (TF) were calculated from the examined data. This study showed that the A. vera has the ability to decontaminate heavy metals from polluted soil. The greatest accumulation was detected from As but the accumulation was declined after 9 months. Hg accumulation showed no significant results of heavy metal uptake by A. vera. The greatest MTF was of Cd elements and counted for 1.3404 and the lowest was of Cr and counted for 0.1292. Cd TF was the maximum (2.8538) but Pb TF was the minimum (1 2191).