T. ll,Nr4-5 CHEMIA I INZYNIERIA EKOLOGICZNA 2004 zyxwvuts Jacek ANTONKIEWICZ* and Czeslawa JASIEWICZ* MINERAL COMPOSITION OF PLANTS CULTIVATED IN SOIL CONTAMINATED WITH Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu AND Zn. PART II. MAIZEzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIH {Zea mays L.) SKLAD MINERALNY ROSLIN UPRAWIANYCH NA GLEBIE ZANIECZYSZCZONEJ Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu I Zn. CZ^SC II. KUKURYDZAzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDC {Zea mays L.) Summary: A significant effect of soil pollution levels on yielding of maize was determined. Mean contents of examined elements in maize ranged as follows: 0.08-1.57 mg Cr, 15.10-752.75 mg Fe, 61.75-347.75 mg Mn • kg"' d.m. The macroelement content in maize ranged between 2.91-5.75 g Mg, 1.47-5.09 g Ca, 0.27-1.53 g Na, 1.27-5.63 g K, 1.24-3.51 g P • kg"' d.m. Pasture fodder meeting cattle requirements should contain at least 0.3% P, 1.7% K , 0.7% Ca, 0.2% Mg and 0.15% Na. Considering animal nutritional require- ments for the above mentioned elements it was found that only Mg content in the tested maize was fully suffi- cient. However, the analysed plant abundance in the other elements did not meet nutritional requirements. Key words: maize, heavy metals, mineral composition Plants growing in the areas contaminated with heavy metals differ in their resistance to the metals in substratum. Some plant tolerance to high concentrations of soil heavy metals is quite common and such plants, growing in industrialised areas, may not reveal any toxicity symptoms even at big amounts of heavy metals [1, 2]. A considerable por- tion of toxic effects to the plants after their exposure to heavy metals seems to be the re- sult of disturbances in the uptake, transport and assimilation of macro- and microele- ments [3]. Progressing contamination of the natural environment with heavy metals make necessary conducting research on the element uptake by plants and on their influ- ence on the amount and quality of yield [4]. The studies aimed to determine the effect of soil contamination with heavy metals on chemical composition of maize. * Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Agriculture, Al. A.. Mickiewicza 21, 31-120 Kra- kow, tel. 0/../12/662 43 50, e-mail: rrantonk@cyf-kr.edu.pl