Open Access

ARTICLE

The Ability of Some Aquatic and Terrestrial Plants to Purify Domestic Wastewater

Abida Kausar^1,*, Noreen Zahra^1,2, Humaira Kiran¹, Sadia Asim³, Abid Raza⁴, Ali Raza^5,*

1 Department of Botany, Government College Women University, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan
2 Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
3 Department of Chemistry, Government College Women University, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan
4 Department of Agronomy, Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan, 66000, Pakistan
5 College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

* Corresponding Authors: Abida Kausar. Email: ; Ali Raza. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Physiological and Molecular Interventions in Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(8), 2245-2260. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.028264

Received 07 December 2022; Accepted 07 April 2023; Issue published 25 June 2023

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the ability of some terrestrial and aquatic plants for wastewater purification. Aquatic plants can remove pollutants from wastewater by consuming and accumulating various contaminants in different parts of plants. Different aquatic and terrestrial plants (Rosa sinensis, Typha latifolia, Ocimm bacilicum, Azolla pinnata, and Salvinia molesta) which have the ability to decrease water pollution were utilized in this study. The capability of five different species of plants was investigated by measuring chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH of the medium. In this research, some aquatic and terrestrial plants were transplanted in wastewater plastic pots containing domestic wastewater with different ratios of 50% and 100%. Then, after 30 days, the physiological and biochemical parameters of plants were calculated to observe the effect of wastewater on plants. Results revealed higher chlorophyll and carotenoids in typha plants treated with 100% wastewater. The highest percentage of elimination in BOD (65%), COD (27%), TDS (72%), EC (83%), and pH (6.8%) was noted with the use of typha and azolla. Intriguingly, total soluble sugars, total free amino acids, and total proteins were found maximum in the hibiscus plant as compared to the other plants under 100% and 50% domestic wastewater treatment, while typha and ocimum showed lower values of these parameters irrespective of wastewater treatments. Moreover, the COD, BOD, TDS, EC, and pH trend was higher in 100% wastewater as compared to 50% wastewater. Taking into account the accumulation capacity of the tested plants especially typha can be efficiently used for the treatment of domestic wastewater.

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