The potentials of Sporobolus pyramidalis and Sacciolepis africana in phytoremediation of heavy metals from challawa contaminated soil, Kano, Nigeria

Phytoremediation is an emerging technology that is claimed effective in reclaiming contaminated sites. This study investigates the ability of Sporobolus pyramidalis and Sacciolepis africana grasses to bioaccumulate copper, cadmium, chromium and lead in field studies using Challawa-contaminated soil (CCS). The presence of important phenolic acids and their derivatives was detected in both S. pyramidalis and S. africana respectively using Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The relative growth rate (RGR) of both plant species were significantly (p ˂ 0.05) lower than the control, with S. africana having a better tolerance ability to heavy metals toxicity than S. pyramidalis with RGR indices of 0.0109 ± 0.00 day−1 and 0.0077 ± 0.00 day−1 respectively. Moreover, both species had significant reductions (p ˂ 0.05) in their chlorophyll concentrations, with S. africana being more affected. The bioaccumulation studies revealed that, S. africana accumulated substantial amount of Cr in shoots than in roots, having translocation factor (TF) above the critical value (1.0). However, S. pyramidalis accumulated substantial amount of Cd and Pb in shoots than in roots, having TF greater than the critical value (1.0). This study demonstrated that both S. africana and S. pyramidalis are efficient hyperaccumulators that can be applied for phytoextraction of Cr and Cd, Pb respectively.