Leaves of Orange Jasmine (Murraya paniculata) as Indicators of Airborne Heavy Metal in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Orange jasmine (Murraya paniculata) leaves were collected from three different sites in the area of Bangkok and in a remote area as a control site. The leaf samples were digested and the concentrations of Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Ni, Cr, and Zn were then quantified by using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). All three Bangkok sites were polluted with heavy metals compared with the background site. Fe was found as the highest mean concentration of the metals studied, while Pb was the lowest. There was a high correlation coefficient between metals Cu-Mn, Cu-Zn, Cu-Pb, and Mn-Zn. However, Fe was not correlated with other metals. There was no significant difference in Pb between sites. The significant difference in other metals found in the study could be attributed to different anthropogenic activities between sites. The principal-component analysis (PCA) identified two factors according to the sources of metals making up the anthropogenic (traffic) and natural (soil) sources. Traffic emission was found to be the main source of metal pollution in the atmosphere of Bangkok.

Influence of Airborne Pollution on Cd, Zn, Pb, Cu, and Al Accumulation and Physiological Parameters of Plant Leaves in Antakya (Turkey)

“…Although it was reported that mosses and lichens are good monitors of heavy metal pollution, higher plants can be used as biomonitors in areas that do not have these species. Nerium oleander (Sawidis et al 1995;Aksoy and Ozturk 1997;Rossini Oliva and Mingorance 2006), Quercus ilex (Monaci et al 2000), Robinia pseudoacacia (Celik et al 2005), Pinus pinea (Mignorance and Olivia 2006), Pyracantha coccinea (Akguc et al 2008), and Murayya paniculata (Titseesang et al 2008) are reported as biomonitors for various heavy metal pollutants.…”

Health risk of aerosols and toxic metals from incense and joss paper burning

“…Therefore, it is very important to control the emission of pollutants from incense burning and prevent the significant damage to human health and to the environment. Regarding the environmental aspect, some studies (Titseesang et al 2008) used the heavy metals concentration in several plants, which was taken as a bio-monitor for predicting the metallic elements concentrations of atmospheric particles. It was found that metallic elements in aerosol particles can be absorbed by environmental matter, especially by living organisms, which could be affected adversely by such adsorption.…”

The Applicability of Plasma‐Based Techniques to Biological Monitoring

“…Information depending on the origin and nature of pollution can be recorded by means of sentinel plants. Orange jasmine leaves were identified as carriers for an airborne heavy metal contamination in Bangkok [73]. The concentration of As, Pb, and V in decadal sections of the bark pocket of a 200-year-old Japanese cedar tree increased 30-to 50-fold from 1900-1909 to 1960-1969, indicating increased atmospheric deposition of these elements [74].…”