Assessment of elemental in plants acted as pollution biological indicator

Abstract

Abstract Direct exposed to sources of heavy metal pollution in the environment have increased the ability of a certain plant to adopt and grown in this kind of environment. Heavy metals concentration in plants grown in the Pasir Gudang industrial area were determined using neutron activation analysis (NAA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The focus of this paper is to evaluating the potential use of plants in industrial areas as biological indicators to air and soil pollution. Nine plants species were collected based on the plants available at factories in the Pasir Gudang, Johor industrial area. The concentration of Fe, Zn, Co, Cr, As, Mn, Sb, Pb, Ni, Cd, and Cu in all plants were in the range of 0.186 to 482 mg kg-1 (dry weight). The results revealed the significant higher concentration of Al, Fe, Zn dan Mn in all polluted plants. Higher concentrations of Al, Fe and Zn were recorded in leaves of Acacia mangium leaves compared to other plant species. Our findings suggest that Acacia mangium plant is suitable as a tracer plant for a certain heavy metal absorption. More comprehensive monitoring is needed to understand the accumulation of heavy metal in the plant collected in Pasir Gudang Industrial area.