Preliminary Study of Heavy Metals in Water Lily Plants around Kota Samarahan Area

• Main Author: Nur Syazwani, binti Abd Rahim
• Format: E-LPTA
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2014
• Subjects: Q Science (General); QK Botany
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8275/1/Preliminary%20Study%20of%20Heavy%20Metals%20in%20Water%20Lily%20Plants%20Around%20Kota%20Samarahan%20Area%2824pgs%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8275/2/Preliminary%20Study%20of%20Heavy%20Metals%20in%20Water%20Lily%20Plants%20Around%20Kota%20Samarahan%20Area.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8275/

Water lily plants have many uses such as fragrance essence, cuisines, and also act as phytoremediation agent for heavy metals in aquatic ecosystems. The objectives of this study were to determine the concentrations of selected heavy metals; Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Nickel (Ni), Arsenic (As), Zinc (Zn) and Copper (Cu), and to find out the differences of these metal Bioaccumulation Factor (BAF) in water lily plants. Three species of water lily were found in this study and were identified as Nymphaea lotus, Nymphaea pubescens and Nymphaea capensis. Three study locations were chosen in Kota Samarahan area. Three samples were taken which were water lily plant, sediment and water. Plant samples were separated according to their parts prior to analyse (e.g. flower, stem, root and leaves). Heavy metals content were analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) and Hg was analysed using Flow Injection Mercury Systems (FIMS 400) analyser. All types of heavy metals were detected in plant samples except Pb that only detected in sediment samples. In general, highest concentration of heavy metals detected in root (Zn; 113.33 mg/kg; N. capensis samples; Lake B), stem (Zn; 86.11 mg/kg; N. pubescens samples; Ditch C) and leaves (Cu; 0.23 mg/kg; N. lotus samples; Lake B). Comparison of level of pollution between three study locations was done by comparing the heavy metals that content in the sediment and water samples. Metal concentrations between study locations followed the order of Ditch C > Lake B > Lake A. The concentration of heavy metals content in sediment and water samples of all study locations were below toxicity level. BAF value were different between the water lily plant part and species. BAF values were only obtained for Ni and Zn because the concentration for Pb, Hg, As and Cu were Below Detection Limit (BDL). The highest percentage of BAFs for Ni was 187.86% in root part of N. capensis while for BAFs of Zn, the highest percentage was 369.18% in leaves of N. capensis.