Evaluation of cadmium bioaccumulation and translocation by Hopea odorata grown in a contaminated soil

Cadmium (Cd) contamination has an adverse effect on soil productivity and crop production. Phytoremediation is a long term and environmental friendly technology to remediate Cadmium polluted areas. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of Hopea adorata for remediation of soils contaminated with Cd. Plant seedlings were planted in a clayey soil spiked contaminated with Cd in the amount of 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 mg kg super(-1) named as; Cd sub(0), Cd sub(1), Cd sub(2), Cd sub(3), Cd sub(4) and Cd sub(5) for a period of five months. The highest growth performance was recorded in the control (Cd sub(0)). Cd concentrations among plant parts were in the following trend: roots>stems>leaves. In order to evaluate the potential of species selected as phytoremediator, three indicators were used namely, bioconcentration factor (BCF, the metal concentration ratio of plant roots to soil), translocation factor (TF, the metal concentration ratio of plant shoots to roots) and removal efficiency (RE, total concentrations of metal and dry biomass of plants to total loaded metal in growth media). The highest total Cd concentration (290.23 plus or minus 13.38 mg kg super(-1)) and Cd removal efficiency (0.81 plus or minus 0.06%) were found in Cd sub(5) and Cd sub(1), respectively. Cd sub(2) exhibited the maximum total dry biomass (60.88 plus or minus 1.78 g). H. odorata showed high BCFs (>1) and low TFs (