Phytoremediation test in PAH contaminated soil

In this work we investigated the phytoremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminated soil. The soil collected from a PAH contaminated area has been put in microcosms and Medicago sativa plants have been sown. Results showed significative differences between the vegetated and non-vegetated pots. The concentration of some PAHs decreased as function of time. In non-vegetated pots the total PAHs concentration was 1308 mg/kg; after three months of Medicago sativa growing, the PAHs concentration decreased to 907 mg/kg. The percentages of degradation was more than 50% for indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene; between 20 and 30% for fluorene, benzoanthracene, crysene, ben zo(b+k)fluorantene, benzopyrene, and dibenzo(a,i))pyrene.