Phytoremediation and Crude Oil Bioaccumulation Potential of Zea Mays L

Abstract

The rate of biodegradation of crude oil under natural environment was examined. Crude oil contaminated soil was simulated. A quantity of 24kg of the soil was divided into 3 groups of 8kg each, consisting of soil samples contaminated with Petrol Hydrocarbon (PHC) in the concentrations of 5%, 10% and 20 % w/w. After a week of soil preparation, 6 viable Zea mays seeds were planted on each pot. Nurseries of the Zea mays seeds were also raised and used for transplanting were necessary. After 8 weeks of growth, bioaccumulation of crude oil in leaves of the Zea mays L as well as the quantity of crude oil remaining in the contaminated soil were determined. The concentration of crude oil was extracted using 10ml of 1:1 Ethanol/Chloroform mixture to extract the crude oil from 1g of each contaminated soil as well as Zea mays biomass cultivated on each contaminated soil was extracted at 8 weeks of studies. The result from the finding indicated that 5%, 10% and 20% (PHC) contaminated soils had 0.0023  0.00005 mg/g, 0.0016  0.0005 mg/g and 0.0022  0.0003 mg/g respectively of crude oil bioaccumulation in Zea mays cultivated in them. The percentage crude oil degradation from each soil test group was approximately 99%.