Assessment of phytoremediation potentials of Lantana camara in Pb impacted soil with organic waste additives

Anthropogenic metal activities have led to soil contamination, posing a severe risk to each trophic level. Therefore, ecosustainable remediation techniques and/or strategy which is the focus of this study must be continuously explored, since metal processing and accidental leakages and depositions into the environment are both inevitable in the global drive for industrialization. Different concentrations at 80–10 mg/kg of Lead (Pb), were used to contaminate a characterized (Mollisol) soil with empty fruit bunch (EFB) and spent mushroom compost (SMC) as amendments with Lantana camara alongside controls. Metal reductions ranged 52.46 to 88.03% and 45.10 to 82.73% were recorded under EFB and SMC, respectively. Heavy metal resistant bacteria (HMRB) counts of 79.67 × 106 to 56.1 × 106 CFU/g soil and 63.33 × 106 to 39.0 × 106 CFU/g soil were recorded under EFB and SMC conditions, respectively, at “Freundlich model” absorption intensity (n) of 2.51 (R2 = 0.9840) and 2.44 (R2 = 0.9012) in same order as above. Results validation with free energy change, kinetics and diffusion studies revealed that L. camara is a potential indicator plant for phytoremediation.