The ability of red fountain grass to grow in cadmium-contaminated soil [electronic resource]

Includes bibliographic reference

A pot experiment was conducted during two successive seasons 2017 and 2018 at experimental farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. The aim of this study is to determine the ability of Pennisetum setaceum cv. rubrum plant to grow in cadmium (Cd) contaminated soil (100 mg/kg).
Also, investigate the effect of citric acid application (1 and 2 mmol/kg) on phyto-extraction of cadmium contaminated soil. The results clarified that the presence of cadmium (100 mg/kg) in the soil caused low
reduction in the herb growth compared to unpolluted soil. The reduction rates in both seasons were 20.33 and 26.47% for herb fresh weight, 5.08 and 14.79% for herb dry weight, 8.86 and 0.0% for number of
inflorescences/plant, respectively. The treatment of citric acid 1 mmol/kg increased the Cd content 149.3,
137.5% in the herb, and 221.25, and 170.81% within plant root in both seasons, respectively compared to the control. Also, such treatment raised phenols content in the herb to 102.3 and 93.0% compared to control plants in both seasons, respectively. The results showed that translocation factor (TF) was bigger than one which means that the plants had accumulated the cadmium in their tissues; however the plant tolerated Cdcontaminated soil accompanied with high content in both phenols and catalase enzyme activity. It could be concluded that P. setaceum cv. rubrum is a promising plant for phytoremediation.

Summary in Arabic