International Journal of Plant & Soil Science

Phytoremediation is an environmental technology in which plants are used for decontamination of organic and inorganic pollutants from soils and water. Acacia seyal Delile was tested for it is ability to degrade crude oil contaminated soil in four concentrations 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% (w/w) of crude oil. Plant parameters, degradation percentage, retention time and bacterial count were calculated. Results showed that at the end of the growth period of A. seyal Del no such adverse effect was observed on the shoot length and it is better than that of the control at the 2% concentration by the end of the growth period. This result highlights the ability of A. seyal Del to grow under stress of oil contamination. A. seyal root length has substantially increased at two and four month’s interval and no significant difference was observed at these two intervals. A. seyal Del shoot biomass was significantly (p<0.05) negatively affected by crude oil at four month intervals, Root weight of A. seyal Del have decreased steadily. Degradation percentage was found to be in the range between 49-54%. Penadecane is the first compound appear in most cases and the retention time was between 13.7-32.9 min. Number of compounds detected in the rhizosphere  those were 57, 70 and 167 compound after two, four and six month of growth respectively. Viable count of the dominant bacteria showed that there is no significant different between concentrations (P=0.699), also there is no significant difference between intervals (P=0.08) in bacterial number. This study reveals the visibility of using tropical plant Acacia seyal in crude oil degradation.