Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(12) July 2014, Pages: 220-224 AENSI Journals Advances in Environmental Biology ISSN-1995-0756 EISSN-1998-1066 Journal home page: http://www.aensiweb.com/AEB/ Corresponding Author: Professor Dr. Mohammed Rahmatullah, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka- 1205, Bangladesh Tele: +88-01715032621 Fax: +88-02-815739 E-mail: rahamatm@hotmail.com Search for Phytoremediating Plants in a Textile Dye Polluted Area of Dhaka City, Bangladesh Syeda Seraj, F.M. Safiul Azam, Farhana Israt Jahan, Dilruba Nasrin, Sharmin Jahan, Shiblur Rahman, Md. Tanvir Morshed, Mohammed Rahmatullah Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 2 April 2014 Received in revised form 13 May 2014 Accepted 28 June 2014 Available online 23 July 2014 Keywords: Phytoremediation, Savar, Dhaka, textile dyes, Bangladesh Phytoremediation is a powerful yet affordable tool for clean-up of various contaminated sites through use of plants. Many plants exist that can not only survive in polluted areas but also hyperaccumulate industrial and domestic pollutants, which can range from heavy metals to oil and grease. Bangladesh is noted for its garment industries, but suffers from the problem of having areas, which are contaminated with textile dye wastes. Such an area exists in Savar of Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh. A survey was carried out in the area to search for plants growing within the textile dye- contaminated site with the further objective of determining the phytoremediation capacity of the plants through available database searches. Our survey found 15 plants distributed into 10 families to be growing in the contaminated area. Literature search showed that nearly all the plants have reported phytoremediation capacities, and as such can possibly provide an easy and affordable way to clean up textile dye-contaminated sites. © 2014 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved. To Cite This Article: Syeda Seraj, F.M. Safiul Azam, Farhana Israt Jahan, Dilruba Nasrin, Sharmin Jahan, Shiblur Rahman, Md. Tanvir Morshed, Mohammed Rahmatullah., Search for Phytoremediating Plants in a Textile Dye Polluted Area of Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Adv. Environ. Biol., 8(12), 220-224, 2014 INTRODUCTION Phytoremediation refers to the technology where plants can be used to reduce, remove, degrade or immobilize environmental pollutants, which can arise from both domestic as well as industrial wastes. Such pollutants can be heavy metals, toxins, textile dyes, pesticides, or even household food wastes. The best things about phytoremediation are its effectiveness and cost-affordability.Pollutants can accumulate in large bodies of soil or water or both and it can be beyond human means or would necessitate exorbitant costs to clean up such soil and water bodies. A number of plants have been described that can hyperaccumulate and so remove heavy metals from soils. A few examples of such plants are Thlaspi caerulescens for removal of zinc and cadmium, Berkheya coddii for removal of nickel, Asparagus racemosus for removal of selenium, Iberis intermedia for removal of thallium, Ipomoea alpina for removal of copper, Haumanistrum robertii for removal of cobalt and Pteris vitata for removal of arsenic [1]. Cleaning of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated garden soil by phytoremediation has been described [8]. Phytoremediation of crude-oil contaminated soil with the plant Glycine max has been described [10]. Phytoremediation of pesticide-contaminated soil and water has been reported [7]. Effluents from textile industries can contain many contaminating substances, which can potentially pollute the soil and water of the surrounding environment. These substances include dyes, nitrate, oil, grease, aluminum, manganese, iron, zinc and copper [21]. The bioremediation of textile wastes using the fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium has been described [3]. Phytoremediation of textile effluents and mixture of structurally different dyes by the plant Glandularia pulchella has been reported [6]. Phytoremedition of synthetic textile dyes by Eichhornia sp., Salvinia sp., and Pistia sp. has been shown Anjana and Thanga, [2]. Instead of a blind serach for phytoremediating plants to clean up polluted areas, a better method is to look for plants growing within the contaminated area and analyze their growth and hyperaccumulating capacities. Their very survival and growth in polluted areas suggest that either the plants have grown resistant to the