TRANSFER FACTOR AS INDICATOR OF HEAVY METALS CONTENT IN PLANTS

摘要

A field study was conducted to investigate translocation and accumulation of four heavy metals: cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in 10 different plants : corn (Zea mays L.), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), onion (Allium cepa L.), pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subsp.vulgaris L.), cabbage (Brassica oleracea var.capitata L.), plantain (Plantago major L.) in samples from 2 sites (unpolluted-Leposavio and polluted-Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo province). The results presented here showed that transfer factors-TF (heavy metals from soil to plants) are dependent on each other and comparison of the transfer factor for various species has significance only if all other conditions (especially environments) are equal. Heavy metals accumulate in plant species with different intensity. Our findings indicated that Cd and Zn accumulated the most with the transfer factor of 1.0-10, followed by Cu with TF of 0.1-1.0, while Pb had the lowest accumulation with TF usually 0.01-0.1. TF decreased when the plants were grown in the soil with higher level of heavy metals. When the growing takes place on the same type of soil, the heavy metals accumulation in different species decreases in the following order: grains < root vegetables < fruit vegetables