The chelate assisted phytoremediation of polluted
soils, based on the complexation of metals with
chelators, can be a valuable green solution for agricultural
soils decontamination. Copper is considered a hardly
available and slowly translocating element, but the complexation
may increase its bioavailability and translocation
capacity, with benefits for soil phytoremediation. In our
study, the ability of horse manure—a natural source of
compounds which can act as chelators for enhancing the
bioavailability and uptake of copper from contaminated
soils—was investigated, by the use of white mustard (
Sinapis
alba
) as the accumulator plant; the results were
compared with those obtained for ethylenediaminetetraacetate,
a synthetic chelator. The copper bioavailability,
bioaccumulation, uptake, and thus the potential for phytoremediation
of copper polluted soils, were estimated by
translocation factor, bioaccumulation factor, and uptake
coefficient. The results indicated that the use of horse
manure as natural chelators source can improve the copper
phytoextraction capacity, also having the advantage of an
increase in biomass.
