Evaluation of the Performance of leaf of Vernonia Plant Species in Bioremediation of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Polluted Swampy Soil

Abstract

The immense impact of polluted soils initiated by crude oil or petroleum products is devastating, causing loss of land, properties and rendering agricultural practices useless. A lot of studies have been carried in the area of remediation yet more studies are needed to determine more specifications of the remedial process. Hence this work looked at the evaluation of bitter leaf performance on hydrocarbon polluted soil using two species; vernonia galamensis and Vernonia amygdalina were taken into considerations. The micro-organism analysis states that three bacterials (P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. coli) were present in the bitter leaf extracts. The leaf extracts were prepared by sun drying them, room drying them and using them wet and blended into the contaminated soil in which three soils were put into consideration swamp soil. The results showed that the wet blended vernonia extracts performed best in the remediating action, remediating more than 50% of the initial values. A range of 10g-40g of bitter leaf was used in the contaminated swampy soil for 40 days which showed a total reduction of the contaminants in the swampy soil. The process predicted the remediating effects of hydrocarbon contents, lead, zinc and chromium as dependent variable while the mass of bitter leaf, the time to be used and the PH of the swampy soil are independent variables.

Key words: Evaluation, performanc, leaf, vernonia plant species, bioremediation, petroleum hydrocarbon, polluted soil