Heavy Metals Accumulation in Trees Grown in Urban and Rural Areas

Abstract

Since heavy metals are the big concerns for the \npublic health today. Metals play a vital role as structural and functional \ncomponents of proteins and enzymes in cell. The most important pathway of \nmetals to transport into human is from soil to plant to human, so this study was carried out to measure the contents of heavy metals concentrations in \nplants leaves from their natural habitats of urban and rural area in Nasiriyah \ncity, Iraq. The \nstudy was conducted to investigate the heavy metals content of four plant \nspecies of Eucalyptus, Olea, Zizphus and Conocarpus from urban (Nasiriyah city) and rural area \n(farms north of Nasiriyah). The concentration of heavy metals was \ntested, including the zinc, copper and lead. Heavy metals were detected using \nan atomic absorption spectrometer. The results showed that the highest \nconcentration of heavy metals in Olea leaves and Eucalyptus leaves were found from the urban areas. Zn was the most dominant metal whereas \nPb had the lowest concentration for all urban and rural area. Among the Eucalyptus, Olea, Zizphus and Conocarpus studied, showed higher heavy \nmetals concentration (Zn, Cu and Pb) than rural area. The results indicated \nthat the Zizphus and Conocarpus leaves of urban and rural area \nhad the lowest heavy metals content compared with Eucalyptus and Olea. \nThe results suggested that Eucalyptus and Olea leaves are good \nsources to treat the pollution of heavy metals. Our study provides a detailed \nexamination of habitat location and plant species effects on potential of heavy \nmetals in trees.