Sunflower Helianthus annuus for Phytoremediation of Zinc in Hydroponic System

Abstract

It has been noted that zinc contamination is hazardous which induces researchers seek new means to overcome it. One of the methods is to employ sunflower plant to eliminate zinc in soil. However, there is insufficient information about zinc phytoremediation by sunflower Helianthus annuus in hydroponic system. Hence in this study, a 15-day experiment was conducted using zinc concentrations of 0, 10, 20, and 30 mg/L in a hydroponic system. The effects of zinc concentration on the plant growth (length of root, length of stem and number of leaf), zinc uptake and zinc translocation were evaluated. The findings showed that the plant growth was inhibited, where the zinc concentrations had affected the growth of the sunflower root, length and stem, and the zinc uptake significantly (p<0.05). It was also found that there was a significant variation of root length and zinc uptake in leaves within certain phases statistically (p<0.05). Then the translocation factor was found significant different for the time parameter but not the zinc concentrations (p<0.05). Therefore, this experiment concluded that the sunflower plant was highly tolerant to zinc and able to extract the zinc from contaminated environments. Lastly, this study showed that the sunflower is potential to phytoremediate zinc in a hydroponic system.