Accumulation of Pb, Zn, Cu and Fe in plants and hyperaccumulator choice in Galali iron mine area, Iran

ABSTRACT: In current time the environment is heavily polluted by various toxic metals, which create a danger for all living beings. Phytoremediation can be potentially used to remediate metal-contaminated sites. A major step towards the development of phytoremediation of heavy metal impacted soils is the discovery of the heavy metal hyperaccumulation in plants. This study evaluated the potential of 23 species growing on a contaminated site in a mining area. The case study was represented by a mining area in Hamadan province in the North West part of Iran. This study showed that the most of sampled species were able to grow on heavily metal-contaminated soils and also were able to accumulate extraordinarily high concentrations of some metals such as Pb, Zn, Cu and Fe. Based on the obtained results and using the most common criteria, Euphorbia macroclada can be classified as hyperaccumulator of some measured heavy metals and, therefore, it has suitable potential for phytoremediation of contaminated soils.