Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Soil and Tree Leaves in Heavy Traffic Affected Area of Agra city

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1 Vol.1 No. 2, (2012) Received Aug.2012; Accepted Nov Accumulation of Heavy Metals in and Tree in Heavy Traffic Affected Area of Agra city Abstract Sonal Tiwari and Rajesh Dhakarey Department of Chemistry, Institute of Basic Science Dr.B.R.Ambedkar University, Agra , U.P. India The results of analysis of soil and tree leaves samples collected from heavy traffic affected area of Agra city show that average concentration of Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Mn and Zn ranged from , , , , and ppm, respectively in soil samples. The maximum concentration of Ni (2.68ppm) and Co (4.82 ppm) was observed in the leaves of Ficus religiosa and Dalbergia sissoo trees, respectively while Ficus bengalensis contained maximum average contents of Pb (10.43ppm), Zn (4.99 ppm) and Cd (5.91 ppm) The significant correlations were observed between soil samples and leaf samples for nickel (0.79) and lead (0.99) in Ficus religiosa and nickel in Dalbergia sissoo (0.99) and Azadirachta (0.94). Key words: Heavy metals, concentration, soil, trees, correlation. Introduction The persistence of heavy metals in soil is a big environmental problem [1]. This could have long-term implications on the biological, chemical and physical properties of soil and its fertility as well as productivity [3]. The heavy metals take part in the biological turnover and their shortage or excess create disturbance in the metabolism and inhibit vegetation growth. Hence it is important to know the concentrations of easily mobile heavy metals which are immediately available for biological and geochemical processes. The aim of the present study was to te the status of heavy metals of soil and tree leaves from the heavy traffic affected areas of Agra city in Uttar Pradesh. Material and Methods The leaves of five types of trees namely Neem (Azadirachta ), Banyan (Ficus bengalensis), Peepal (Ficus religiosa), Seesam (Dalbergia sissoo) and Ashok (Saraca ) were collected during the 1 period March to April, 2011 from three locations of heavy traffic affected areas of the Agra city along National Highway-2 and transport Nagar and corresponding soil samples (0-60 cm depth) were also collected. The leaf and soil samples were air dried properly the tree leaves (500g) were placed in porcelain dish and then were put in a Muffle Furnace at 450 C for the complete ashing. The ash of leaves was digested in aqua regia (1HNO3+3 HCl) and diluted properly for analysis of heavy metals. Two gram dried and well processed soil sample was used for digestion in aqua regia (1HNO3+3 HCl) and diluted properly for analysis of heavy metals [6]. The heavy metals in the digested material of soil and tree leaf samples were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The available data were tabulated and coefficients of correlations were calculated between soil and leaf contents of heavy metals.

2 Results and Discussion The data presented in Table-1 reveal that the average concentration of Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Mn and Zn ranged from , , , , and ppm, respectively in soil samples of various locations. While the average concentrations of Ni, Pb, Zn, Cd and Co ranged as , , , and ppm, respectively in tree leaf samples. The maximum average concentration of Ni and Co was observed in the leaves of Ficus religiosa and Dalbergia sisso trees. On the other hand leaves of Ficus bengalensis contained maximum average contents of Pb, Zn and Cd. The Maximum content of Ni was obtained in Dalbergia sisso tree leaves and those of Pb, Zn, Cd and Co in the leaves of Azadirachta tree leaves at all the locations. On the bases of average values, the contents may be arranged as Pb > Fe> Zn> Ni >Cu > Mn in soil and Pb>Cd> Zn >Co >Ni in tree leaf samples. The data given in Table-2 show that highest positive correlation existed between Pb in soil and Pb in leaves of ficus religiosa and that of lowest between Zn in soil and Zn in leaves of the same type of trees. The statistically significant correlations were obtained for nickel (0.79) and lead (0.99) in ficus religiosa and for nickel in Dalbergia sissoo (0.99) and Azadirachta (0.94) confirming the earlier work [4] These positive correations for metal content between soil and plant leaves are due to absorption of elements from polluted soil by plants in addition to absorption of elements from vehicular exhaust [2]. The results te that there is no possibility of toxicity or deficiency of these elements at present at any site as the values of contents are within safe limit. However, the higher values of heavy metals in soil and leaf samples show the accumulation of heavy metals in the area under study from automobile [5]. These metals are released during combustion, component wear, fluid leakage and corrosion of metals. The tremendous increase in the number of motor vehicles in Agra city is leading to increasingly high levels of some heavy metals in the Urban as well as in highway environment. References 1. Cataldo, D.A and wildung, R.E. (1978). and Plant factors influencing the accumulations of heavy metals by Plants. Environmental Health Perspectives, 27: Cicek, A. and Korpal AS. (2003). Reasearch of usability of tree leaves and soil in determining the contribution of industry and traffic to air pollution in Bozuyuk (Turkey) region. Journal Environmental Biology, 24 (3):

3 3. Grigalaviciene, Rutkovience,V. and Marozas (2005). The Accumulation of Heavy Metals Pb, Cu and Cd at Roadside Forest. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 1 (14): John, A. (1995). Correlation Genuine and Spurious in Pearson and Yule. Journal Statistical Science, 10: Mbah, C.N. and Man, A. (2010). Variation in heavy metal contents on roadside soils along amajor expressway in south east Nigeria. New York Science Journal, 3(10): Wuzhong, N., Halyan, M., Jixiu, H. and Xinxian, L. (2004).Heavy metal Concentractions in Vegetable Garden s from the Subherb of Hangzhou, people s Republic of china. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 72:

4 Table 1. Concentration of heavy metals (ppm) in soil and tree leaves. Trees sample Varia- Cu Fe Ni Pb Mn Zn Cd Co On Locations Nature tions 1.Azadirachta Ficus bengalensis Ficus religiosa Dalbergia sissoo Saraca

5 Table 2. Correlation Coefficients between some heavy metals of soil and tree. Heavy Azadirachta Ficus Ficus Dalbergia Saraca Metal bengalensis religiosa sissoo Nickel Lead Zinc

Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research

Available on line www.jocpr.com Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research ISSN No: 0975-7384 CODEN(USA): JCPRC5 J. Chem. Pharm. Res., 2011, 3(2):397-402 Analysis of heavy metals in citrus juice from