Occurrence and Distribution of Heavy Metals in Mining Degraded Soil and Medicinal Plants: A Case Study of Pb/Zn Sulfide Terrain Northern Areas, Pakistan

• DOI: 10.1007/s00128-022-03673-6
• Publication Date: 2022-12-22T09:05:53Z
• Authors: Javed Nawab; Muhammad Idress; Sajid Ullah; Gul Rukh; Rimsha Zainab; Hassan Sher; Junaid Ghani; Sardar Khan; Zahid Ullah; Imran Ahmad; Syed Weqas Ali
• Keywords: Chromium; China; Plants, Medicinal; 15. Life on land; Risk Assessment; 01 natural sciences; 3. Good health; Soil; Zinc; Lead; Nickel; 13. Climate action; Metals, Heavy; Soil Pollutants; Pakistan; Cadmium; Environmental Monitoring; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Mining activities have serious environmental impacts, thus releasing heavy metals (HMs) such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) into the surrounding environment. The current paper investigated the impacts of mining activities of Pb-Zn sulfide on soil and medicinal plants. Hence, soil samples (n = 36) and medicinal plants (n = 36) samples were collected, acid extracted and were analyzed through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for HMs quantification. Our results showed that mineralized zones showed high HMs enrichment levels as compared to non-mineralized zones. Various Indices for HMs assessment revealed that the contaminated soil of the study area had low to extreme level. The mean concentrations of HMs in mining degraded soil and medicinal plants were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.01) and were found in order of Zn > Pb > Cr > Ni > Cd and Cr > Zn > Pb > Ni > Cd respectively. Similarly, some widely consumable medicinal plants showed good metal accumulation for Cd, Cr and Pb i.e., 3.57 mg kg1, 350 mg kg-1 and 335 mg kg-1 in C. sativa, while 5.9 mg kg-1, 276.9 mg kg-1 and 188.7 mg kg-1 in R. hestatus respectively. Hence, the present study recommended that medicinal plants grown in mining areas should be analyzed for HMs concentration before consumption.