Authors:
Oyedeji, M.B
, Bankole, S.O
, Bolanle-Ojo, O.I and Aina, O.O ,Nigeria
|
Abstract:
This study investigated the growth response of Jatropha curcas and its potential in the
phytoremediation of soil contaminated with spent oil in a two (2) months pot experiment. Two
(2) kg of potted top soil collected within Federal college of Forestry, Ibadan premises was
contaminated with varying volume (treatment) of spent oil (T1-0ml, T2-50ml, T3-150ml and T4-
250ml) replicated five (5) times, seedlings of Jatropha curcas were transplanted into the pots and
growth parameters such as plant height, stem girth and number of leaves was measured on
weekly basis for eight (8) weeks, while pre planting and post planting total petroleum
hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration of the soil was determined using standard methods and
compared. The result shows a pre planting TPH of 0.57%, 3.23%, 13.00% and 17.57% for
treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, while comparable growth rate in plant height was observed
across the treatments with T2 having the highest height after 8 weeks while T3 had the least
height. No significant difference between the treatments at p <0.05; in stem girth, T1 had the
highest while T3 had the least which is not significantly different at p <0.05; while treatments 1,
2 and 4 had comparable number of leaves which is significantly different from T3 which had the
lowest number of leaves. Jatropha curcas contributed to a significant removal of 82.45%,
69.65%, 86.54% and 86.57% of TPH present in the pre-planting soil from T1, T2, T3 and T4
respectively. The study further confirms the ability of Jatropha curcas to withstand adverse
condition and could thus be candidate for the phytoremediation of oil spill soils |
