Aliku Chioma Bella, Madu Christian N, Aliku OrevaOghene
Centre for Environmental Management and Control, University of Nigeria, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Department of Management and Management Science, Pace University, New York, United States.
MethodsX. 2021 Sep 7;8:101509. doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2021.101509. eCollection 2021.
Phytoremediation has widely been recognised as an eco-system friendly and effective technique for soil remediation. However, this method is generally slow, and most plants used for phytoextraction are incapable of thriving in crude oil polluted soils with high concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbon. Hence, organic stimulants were developed for accelerating the phytoremediation of crude oil polluted soils by enhancing the growth of cowpea through nutrient supplementation, and increasing the bioavailability of petroleum hydrocarbon by saponification. Moringa and pawpaw seeds are high in plant available nutrients and contain saponin, a phytochemical that increases the bioavailability of contaminants. Although both seeds and moringa seed powder have been used for water purification, they have not been explored in soil remediation studies. For these reasons, pawpaw seeds were processed into powdery form to increase their surface area as organic stimulants for enhancing phytoremediation of crude oil polluted soil. This study investigates the performance of pawpaw seed powder, relative to moringa seed powder, in increasing the removal rate of petroleum hydrocarbon by cowpea under crude oil polluted soil conditions. The key functions of the newly developed organic stimulant include:•Increased bioavailability of petroleum hydrocarbon for phytoextraction.•Enhanced shoot production in cowpea.•Increased capacity of cowpea to remove petroleum hydrocarbons from soils.
植物修复已被广泛认为是一种生态友好且有效的土壤修复技术。然而，这种方法通常较为缓慢，并且大多数用于植物提取的植物无法在石油烃浓度高的原油污染土壤中茁壮成长。因此，人们开发了有机刺激剂，通过补充养分促进豇豆生长，并通过皂化作用提高石油烃的生物可利用性，从而加速原油污染土壤的植物修复。辣木籽和木瓜籽富含植物可利用的养分，且含有皂角苷，这是一种能提高污染物生物可利用性的植物化学物质。尽管这两种种子以及辣木籽粉都已用于水净化，但它们尚未在土壤修复研究中得到探索。出于这些原因，将木瓜籽加工成粉末状，以增加其表面积，作为有机刺激剂来增强原油污染土壤的植物修复效果。本研究调查了在原油污染土壤条件下，相对于辣木籽粉，木瓜籽粉在提高豇豆对石油烃去除率方面的表现。新开发的有机刺激剂的关键功能包括：
•提高用于植物提取的石油烃的生物可利用性。
•增强豇豆的地上部产量。
•提高豇豆从土壤中去除石油烃的能力。
