Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2013, Article ID 194765, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/194765 Research Article Wild Plant Assessment for Heavy Metal Phytoremediation Potential along the Mafic and Ultramafic Terrain in Northern Pakistan Said Muhammad, 1,2 Mohammad Tahir Shah, 2 Sardar Khan, 3 Umar Saddique, 4 Nida Gul, 2 Muhammad Usman Khan, 5 Riffat Naseem Malik, 5 Muhammad Farooq, 1 and Alia Naz 6 1 Department of Earth Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan 2 National Center of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan 3 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan 4 Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan 23200, Pakistan 5 Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan 6 Department of Environmental Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan 23200, Pakistan Correspondence should be addressed to Said Muhammad; saidmuhammad1@gmail.com Received 16 April 2013; Accepted 17 July 2013 Academic Editor: George Perry Copyright © 2013 Said Muhammad et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. his study investigates the wild plant species for their phytoremediation potential of macro and trace metals (MTM). For this purpose, soil and wild plant species samples were collected along maic and ultramaic terrain in the Jijal, Dubair, and Alpuri areas of Kohistan region, northern Pakistan. hese samples were analyzed for the concentrations of MTM (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, and Co) using atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS-PEA-700). Soil showed signiicant ( < .001) contamination level, while plants had greater variability in metal uptake from the contaminated sites. Plant species such as Selaginella jacquemontii, Rumex hastatus, and Plectranthus rugosus showed multifold enrichment factor (EF) of Fe, Mn, Cr, Ni, and Co as compared to background area. Results revealed that these wild plant species have the ability to uptake and accumulate higher metals concentration. herefore, these plant species may be used for phytoremediation of metals contaminated soil. However, higher MTM concentrations in the wild plant species could cause environmental hazards in the study area, as selected metals (Fe, Mn, Cr, Ni, Co, and Pb) have toxicological concerns. 1. Introduction Owing to toxicity, persistent and bioaccumulative nature, the macro and trace metals (MTMs) contamination represent, one of the most burning threats to soil, plants, human health, and environment [1–5]. Among the MTM, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Co, Cu, and Zn are essential metals for human health and environment. However, these metals may produce toxicity at their higher concentrations. Whereas, others trace metals (TM) including Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, and As are extremely toxic even at very low concentrations for living organisms and environment [3, 6]. hese contaminants may have natural (ore deposits or weathering of parent rocks) and anthro- pogenic (mining, minerals processing, and ly ash) sources [2, 7–9]. Although, in most cases, soil enrichment with MTM is due to the hazardous waste pollution, there are many cases where soil derived from mineralized rocks is naturally enriched with these metals [2, 7]. Generally, the maic and ultramaic terrain are enriched with MTM including Cr, Ni, Mg, Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd; and similarly, the weathered soil of ultramaic terrain (serpentine soil) are also enriched with these metals [1, 7]. Mining and waste dumping further accelerated the MTM accumulations in soil ecosystem [2, 10, 11]. pH, electrical conductivity (EC),