Page 210 - e-Book

Potassium

Requirements: soil , ammonium acetate ,flame photometer.
Procedure:

1.Take 5g soil.
2.Add 25ml of ammonium acetate.

3 .Set flame photometer.
4. Aspirated the standard solution.

Phytoremediation

Selection of plant materials : To observe the phytoremediation activities of different plants,
three plants known to have phytoremediation activities, were selected;

a) Wedelia trilobata -entire plant with complete root and shoot system -which has capacity to
+
+
accumulate Hg2 and Fe3 .
b) Moringa oleifera - stem cuttings, having metal accumulating properties.
+
+
c) Brassica nigra - seedlings -exhibit high removal efficiency of Cd2 and Hg2 .
Preparation of chemicals :Chemical compounds such as HgCl2 and FeCl3, were taken and

0.01% and 0.05% solutions of both HgCl2 and FeCl3 were prepared according to the
following proportions;

i) HgCl2 : 0.01% of mercuric chloride solution was prepared by taking 0.1g of the HgCl2 in

one litre of distilled water .
0.05% of mercuric chloride solution was prepared by taking 0.5g of HgCl2 powder in one

litre of distilled water .
ii) FeCl3 : 0.01% of ferric chloride solution was prepared by dissolving 0.1g of FeCl3 crystals

in one litre of distilled water .
iii) Different pH levels : Prepare solutions of pH, 4.9 and 5.5.

Methods : Take 100ml of each solutions in separate conical flasks. Collected plant materials

were dipped in these solutions, and observations taken.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The site selected for the study was adjacent to a freshwater lake on the unused water-logged
paddy field. The projected site gets flooded during monsoon due to overflow from the river.

During dry seasons, water flows back to the river and little amount of water remains in the
land even in the driest season and act as store the flood waters and storm waters. The other

site was totally submerged during the recent Kerala floods

200