BRASSICA NAPUS: PHYTOREMEDIATION

Abstract

The importance of healthy nutrition and obtaining the highest yield from unit area is increasing in order to feed the increasing world’s population. Besides the loss of agricultural lands due to misuse, pollution is another threatening factor for agriculture. Agricultural lands are being polluted by many ways such as excessive fertilization and agricultural spraying, industrial activities and vehicles, especially for areas next to highways. Cleaning the contaminated soil is an important issue besides obtaining the highest yield from unit are these days. For this purpose, phytoremediation was developed which is an economical and easy to apply method. Hyper accumulator plants form the basis for the application of this method. Plants belonging to Brassicaea family are frequently used as hyper accumulator and Brassica napus is one the most often employed species. It is especially used for remediation of heavy metal contamination. Among the heavy metals cobalt, lead, chromium and nickel are the leading contaminants. Chelates are another parameter affecting uptake of these metals by Brassica napus. Foremost among them are EDTA, EDDHA, DTPA, HEDTA and amino acids. Organic matters act as chelates and help the hyper accumulator Brassica napus to uptake contaminants in its body when this plant is cultivated especially in soils rich in organic matter. On the other hand highway sides, areas close to industrial zones, excess and unconscious fertilization cause accumulation of heavy metals. In this review, role of Brassica napus in heavy metal phytoremediation and its relation with contaminants were evaluated. © 2020 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.