Potential of Ipomoea aquatica cultivars in phytoremediation of soils contaminated with di-n-butyl phthalate

Five different genotypic cultivars of Ipomoea aquatica commonly grown in Southeast Asia were cultivated to investigate their accumulation variation of di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and their potential for phytoremediation of three soils contaminated with DBP (4.5, 10.3 and 22.5 mg kg−1). The results indicated different cultivar tolerance to DBP. DBP concentration in the shoots of the cultivars and residual DBP concentration in the soil were proportional to initial DBP concentrations in the soil and significantly different with different genotypic cultivars, indicating that the removal of DBP is cultivar-specific. DBP removal in the soil with indigenous DBP was higher than that in freshly DBP-spiked soils. The cultivars of local white-skin I. aquatica (cultivar V5) and Taiwan filiform-leaf I. aquatica (cultivar V1) presented the highest phytoremediation potential in the soil containing indigenous DBP and in freshly DBP-spiked soil, respectively. The translocation factor (TF, DBP concentration ratio of the shoots to the roots) and bioconcentration factor (BCF, DBP concentration ratio of the plant to the soil) also significantly varied with different cultivars, and they did not follow distribution profiles correlated to DBP removal indicating that phytoextraction was not the dominant DBP removal mechanism. Finally, the potential ability of different cultivars of enhancing biodegradation varied widely.