Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water

Pollution by organic and inorganic toxic substances has raised public and environmental concern globally since last decade. However, due to rapid growth of world population along with excessive industrial development, this situation worsens. One of the non-essential heavy metals, mercury (Hg), is a...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A Majid, Noraishah, Ramli, Nur Syazila, Phang, Ing Chia
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: Penerbit UTM Press 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/1/6699-18422-1-SM.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/7/51901_Pelargonium%20radula%20as%20a%20plant%20bioindicator_SCOPUS.pdf
_version_ 1848783956576567296
author A Majid, Noraishah
Ramli, Nur Syazila
Phang, Ing Chia
author_facet A Majid, Noraishah
Ramli, Nur Syazila
Phang, Ing Chia
author_sort A Majid, Noraishah
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
description Pollution by organic and inorganic toxic substances has raised public and environmental concern globally since last decade. However, due to rapid growth of world population along with excessive industrial development, this situation worsens. One of the non-essential heavy metals, mercury (Hg), is a widespread toxic pollutant commonly found in drinking water sources. Therefore, there is a need to monitor the level of Hg in the drinking water. Biomonitoring, which use biological response to assess environmental changes, is one of the approaches that are getting more attention recently. Plant bioindicator offers huge advantages over conventional water quality analysis. Other than cheap, easy to apply and give rapid results; most importantly, people in the rural area can apply this method to monitor water quality without the need of modern equipment and technical expertise. In this study, young leaves from terrestrial plants were treated with water containing Hg solutions. Plant that showed visible morphological changes was selected as potential bioindicator and further analyzed. Over 60 plants were screened including herbs, shrubs and flowering plants. At the 24th h of observation, 15 plants showed morphological changes with several obvious symptoms, including the presence of dark spot, chlorosis, browning of leaves and wrinkle. Among these plants, Plectranthus amboinicus, Lantana camara and Pelargonium radula treated with Hg solutions exhibited morphological changes at the 6th h of treatment, compared to the control. In the present study, Pelargonium radula was chosen as the Hg bioindicator as it gave the fastest and visible morphological changes, which is within 4 h of treatment. This new finding was promising, as it demonstrated that plants could be used for Hg biomonitoring for the safety of drinking water.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T16:29:35Z
format Article
id iium-51901
institution International Islamic University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T16:29:35Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Penerbit UTM Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling iium-519012016-09-19T06:40:29Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/ Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water A Majid, Noraishah Ramli, Nur Syazila Phang, Ing Chia Q Science (General) Pollution by organic and inorganic toxic substances has raised public and environmental concern globally since last decade. However, due to rapid growth of world population along with excessive industrial development, this situation worsens. One of the non-essential heavy metals, mercury (Hg), is a widespread toxic pollutant commonly found in drinking water sources. Therefore, there is a need to monitor the level of Hg in the drinking water. Biomonitoring, which use biological response to assess environmental changes, is one of the approaches that are getting more attention recently. Plant bioindicator offers huge advantages over conventional water quality analysis. Other than cheap, easy to apply and give rapid results; most importantly, people in the rural area can apply this method to monitor water quality without the need of modern equipment and technical expertise. In this study, young leaves from terrestrial plants were treated with water containing Hg solutions. Plant that showed visible morphological changes was selected as potential bioindicator and further analyzed. Over 60 plants were screened including herbs, shrubs and flowering plants. At the 24th h of observation, 15 plants showed morphological changes with several obvious symptoms, including the presence of dark spot, chlorosis, browning of leaves and wrinkle. Among these plants, Plectranthus amboinicus, Lantana camara and Pelargonium radula treated with Hg solutions exhibited morphological changes at the 6th h of treatment, compared to the control. In the present study, Pelargonium radula was chosen as the Hg bioindicator as it gave the fastest and visible morphological changes, which is within 4 h of treatment. This new finding was promising, as it demonstrated that plants could be used for Hg biomonitoring for the safety of drinking water. Penerbit UTM Press 2015 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/1/6699-18422-1-SM.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/7/51901_Pelargonium%20radula%20as%20a%20plant%20bioindicator_SCOPUS.pdf A Majid, Noraishah and Ramli, Nur Syazila and Phang, Ing Chia (2015) Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water. Jurnal Teknologi, 77 (24). pp. 29-34. ISSN 0127-9696 10.11113/jt.v77.6699
spellingShingle Q Science (General)
A Majid, Noraishah
Ramli, Nur Syazila
Phang, Ing Chia
Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
title Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
title_full Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
title_fullStr Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
title_full_unstemmed Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
title_short Pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
title_sort pelargonium radula as a plant bioindicator in monitoring mercury in drinking water
topic Q Science (General)
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/1/6699-18422-1-SM.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51901/7/51901_Pelargonium%20radula%20as%20a%20plant%20bioindicator_SCOPUS.pdf