Phytoremediation Potentials of Guinea Grass (Panicum Maximum) and Velvet Bean (Mucuna Pruriens) on Crude Oil Impacted Soils

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) and Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) have been observed in impacted soils hence their trial in this study as hyper accumulators of heavy metals. Microbiological and Physico-chemical studies of impacted soil were conducted before planting in plastic pots filled with 17000g of soils treated with 0 ml (T1), 50 ml (T2), 100 ml (T3) and 200 ml (T4) of crude oil.These treatments were replicated four times to give an observation of thirty-two experimental pots for both experiments. After twenty days of pollution, thetest plants were introduced and allowed to grow for 6 weeks (42 days). Tissue analyses of heavy metals were carried out on the shoot to determine their presence. Microbiology analyses such as THBC, THFC, HUB and HUF and the physicochemical parameters of all soil treatments such as pH, soil texture, Conductivity, % Carbon content and base metals were determined. The results show that Lead (Pb) was not detected in Plants tissues; Nickel was not also detected in T2 and T3 for Panicum maximum and not detected in T1, T3 and T4 for Mucuna pruriens. Cadmium (Cd) ranged from -0.020 mg/kg to -0.051 mg/kg and from -0.054 mg/kg to -0.070 mg/kg for Panicum maximum and Mucuna pruriens tissues respectively. Also, Chromium (Cr) ranged from -0.124 mg/kg to -0.119 mg/kg and from -0.146 mg/kg to -0.153 mg/kg for Panicum maximum and Mucuna pruriens tissues respectively. It can be concluded from the study that Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) and Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) didn’t significantly hyper accumulated the heavy metals (Lead, Cadmium, Chromium and Nickel) analysed.