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species is significantly high. Such behavior of As, Sb, and Tl was confirmed by the
extraction tests of soil samples applying various solvents.
Keywords Alchar mine · Endemic plant species · Boacumulation · Arsenic ·
Antimony · Thalium
13.1 Introduction
Contamination of soils with toxic elements represents a serious threat to environmental quality and human health. Although toxic elements can be incorporated into
soils from natural sources (weathering of parent materials, emissions from volcanoes, mining, industrial pollution, etc.), most of their inputs have an anthropogenic
origin (Alloway 1995).
Soil toxicity has become a global concern in different parts of the world, with the
increasing contamination of soil, water, and plants in many regions of the world.
The intense industrialization and mining activities that were developed over the
years were carried out without pollution control, in accordance with the absence of
an environmental legislation. The environmental risk of the toxic metal residues,
chaotically abandoned in the environment over the years, was affected by runoff
waters, and they depend on the stability of the metal-bearing ores. Some of the plant
species that grow on such land respond differently depending of their ability to
uptake or exclude a variety of elements in their shoots during normal growth and
reproduction.
Certain plant species can accumulate essential and nonessential heavy metals in
their roots and shoots to levels far exceeding than those present in the soil. Metalaccumulating plant species are always restricted to metalliferous soils found in different regions around the world. The mechanisms of metal accumulation (from soil
to plant species), which involve extracellular and intracellular metal chelation, precipitation, and translocation in the vascular system, are poorly understood. Interest
in these mechanisms has led to the development of phytoremediation, a new technology that involves the use of plants to clean up polluted soil with toxic elements.
Medicinal plants can absorb environmental contaminants from the ground, which
may consequently lead to harmful effects on human health when they are taken. In
addition, there is a great need to control the level of pollutants in herbs, with particular attention to the level of toxic metals (Tripathi et al. 2012). As such, detailed
studies of soils and vegetation at such strongly metal-contaminated sites and their
peripheries are necessary to accurately assess implications for toxicity to herbivorous consumers and impact on general human health. Such studies are also essential
for gathering valuable information for reasoning strategies of phytoremediation and
land reclamation in metalliferous sites (Peer et al. 2006; Jimenez et al. 2013).
K. B. Andonovska et al.
species is significantly high. Such behavior of As, Sb, and Tl was confirmed by the
extraction tests of soil samples applying various solvents.
Keywords Alchar mine · Endemic plant species · Boacumulation · Arsenic ·
Antimony · Thalium
13.1 Introduction
Contamination of soils with toxic elements represents a serious threat to environmental quality and human health. Although toxic elements can be incorporated into
soils from natural sources (weathering of parent materials, emissions from volcanoes, mining, industrial pollution, etc.), most of their inputs have an anthropogenic
origin (Alloway 1995).
Soil toxicity has become a global concern in different parts of the world, with the
increasing contamination of soil, water, and plants in many regions of the world.
The intense industrialization and mining activities that were developed over the
years were carried out without pollution control, in accordance with the absence of
an environmental legislation. The environmental risk of the toxic metal residues,
chaotically abandoned in the environment over the years, was affected by runoff
waters, and they depend on the stability of the metal-bearing ores. Some of the plant
species that grow on such land respond differently depending of their ability to
uptake or exclude a variety of elements in their shoots during normal growth and
reproduction.
Certain plant species can accumulate essential and nonessential heavy metals in
their roots and shoots to levels far exceeding than those present in the soil. Metalaccumulating plant species are always restricted to metalliferous soils found in different regions around the world. The mechanisms of metal accumulation (from soil
to plant species), which involve extracellular and intracellular metal chelation, precipitation, and translocation in the vascular system, are poorly understood. Interest
in these mechanisms has led to the development of phytoremediation, a new technology that involves the use of plants to clean up polluted soil with toxic elements.
Medicinal plants can absorb environmental contaminants from the ground, which
may consequently lead to harmful effects on human health when they are taken. In
addition, there is a great need to control the level of pollutants in herbs, with particular attention to the level of toxic metals (Tripathi et al. 2012). As such, detailed
studies of soils and vegetation at such strongly metal-contaminated sites and their
peripheries are necessary to accurately assess implications for toxicity to herbivorous consumers and impact on general human health. Such studies are also essential
for gathering valuable information for reasoning strategies of phytoremediation and
land reclamation in metalliferous sites (Peer et al. 2006; Jimenez et al. 2013).
K. B. Andonovska et al.