Efficient wastewater treatment can be achieved in
several ways, physical, chemical and biological.
Phytoremediation is one of the biological wastewater
treatment methods which is simple, environmentally
friendly and consumes less energy. Suitable plant species
used for phytoremediation should have high uptake of
both organic and inorganic pollutants, grow well in
polluted water and be easily controlled in quantitatively
propagated dispersion. Vetiver grass (Vetiveria
zizanioidesrecently reclassified as Chrysopogon
zizanioides) belongs to the gramineae family and was
first used for soil and water conservation purposes.
Due to its unique morphological and physiological
characteristics, and tolerance to high levels of heavy
metal and adverse conditions, vetiver has also been
successfully used in the field of environmental
protection
5
. It is excellent for the removal of heavy
metals from contaminated soil6,7
and rehabilitating
landfills
8
. Even though it is not an aquatic plant, vetiver
can be established and survive under hydroponic
conditions
9
. It can purify eutrophic water
10
, garbage
leachates
9
and wastewater from pig farms
11
. Therefore,
vetiver has high potential to be used for industrial
wastewater treatment. This experiment was conducted
to compare the growth of three vetiver ecotypes grown
in different sources of industrial wastewater. The
amount of major plant nutrients and heavy metals
absorbed by vetiver grass are also investigated.