The potentials of <i>Sporobolus pyramidalis</i> and <i>Sacciolepis africana</i> in phytoremediation of heavy metals from challawa contaminated soil, Kano, Nigeria

Phytoremediation is an emerging technology that is claimed effective in reclaiming contaminated sites. This study investigates the ability of <i>Sporobolus pyramidalis</i> and <i>Sacciolepis africana</i> grasses to bioaccumulate copper, cadmium, chromium and lead in field studies using Challawa-contaminated soil (CCS). The presence of important phenolic acids and their derivatives was detected in both <i>S. pyramidalis</i> and <i>S. africana</i> respectively using Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The relative growth rate (RGR) of both plant species were significantly (p ˂ 0.05) lower than the control, with <i>S. africana</i> having a better tolerance ability to heavy metals toxicity than <i>S. pyramidalis</i> with RGR indices of 0.0109 ± 0.00 day^-1 and 0.0077 ± 0.00 day^-1 respectively. Moreover, both species had significant reductions (p ˂ 0.05) in their chlorophyll concentrations, with <i>S. africana</i> being more affected. The bioaccumulation studies revealed that, <i>S. africana</i> accumulated substantial amount of Cr in shoots than in roots, having translocation factor (TF) above the critical value (1.0). However, <i>S. pyramidalis</i> accumulated substantial amount of Cd and Pb in shoots than in roots, having TF greater than the critical value (1.0). This study demonstrated that both <i>S. africana</i> and <i>S. pyramidalis</i> are efficient hyperaccumulators that can be applied for phytoextraction of Cr and Cd, Pb respectively.