TITLE:
Heavy Metal Contamination of Tree Leaves
AUTHORS:
Khageshwar Singh Patel, Reetu Sharma, Nohar Singh Dahariya, Ankit Yadav, Borislav Blazhev, Laurent Matini, Jon Hoinkis
KEYWORDS:
Heavy Metal, Soil, Tree Leaf, Bioindicator, India
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Analytical Chemistry,
Vol.6 No.8,
July
28,
2015
ABSTRACT: The study of heavy metal (HMs)
contamination of environment is of great interest due to their serious health
hazard. In this work, the contamination of tree leaves with the HMs in the most polluted industrial city, Korba, India is described. The leaves of
common trees i.e. Azadirachta indica, Butea monosperma, Eucalyptus, Ficus religiosa, Mangifera
indica and Tectona grandis were selected for assessment of the HMs contamination as bioindicator. The elevated concentration of HMs (i.e. As, Fe, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and
Hg) in the tree leaves was observed, ranging from 2.8 - 43, 728 - 5182, 8.6 - 49, 48 - 1196, 43 - 406, 79 - 360, 1.12 -
1.65, 1.6 - 16.4 and 0.13 - 0.76 mg/kg, respectively. The concentration,
enrichment and sources of the HMs in the leaves are described. Azadirachta indica leaves,
accumulating higher concentration of the HMs, showed a higher
efficiency as bioindicator for the urban pollution.