Role of heavy metal tolerant rhizosphere bacteria in the phytoremediation of Cu and Pb using (Mart.) Solms.

The role of multi-heavy metal tolerant bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere of in the phytoremediation of Cu and Pb under laboratory conditions was investigated. The heavy metal tolerant rhizosphere bacteria were identified as , , , , and Results showed a significant variation in wet weight, Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) of the rhizosphere, HPC of water, removal and uptake of Cu and Pb by , either alone or in association with the rhizosphere bacteria. The removal of Cu by in different experimental conditions showed that OTC (Oxytetracycline) untreated with rhizosphere bacteria has maximum removal with 95%, followed by alone with 84%. The OTC treated with rhizosphere bacteria could remove 81% of Cu. The maximum Pb removal efficiency of 93.4% was shown by OTC untreated with rhizosphere bacteria, followed by alone with 86.8%. The OTC treated with rhizosphere bacteria showed the least removal efficiency with 82.32%. The translocation factor (TF) values for Cu and Pb were lower than 1 indicated that the absorption was mainly accomplished in the roots of . The order of accumulation of Cu and Pb in was noted as root > leaf > petiole.