Efficacy of Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals by Aquatic Plant Hydrilla verticillata Royle

The bioaccumulation potential of water plant (Hydrilla verticillata) was studied on metals. The plants were grown for 7 days each in experiment tanks containing a solution of 100 ppm concentration of either Cadmium (Cd), Magnesium (Mg), Copper (Cu) or Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Sodium (Na), and Potassium (K),. The change in fresh weight plants was examined. The percentage of removal of the metals by the plant was determined using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) on the acid digest of the plant. The biomass reduced insignificantly (Pgreater than0.05) in the H. verticillata grown in the test solution and increased by 7.23 % (g/g) in the control. Metal uptake occurred to varying degrees. The maximum amount of metal uptake per dry weight of H. verticillata was 12.27ppm of potassium and lowest, 0.02ppm of lead.