Phytoremediation of water contaminated with Copper and cadmium Using Ceratophyllum demersum

Karima Fadhil Abbas

Authors

Karima et al., 2026 Department of Medical Biochemistry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Kerbala University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3375-4338

Keywords:

phytoremediation, copper, Cadmium, Ceratophyllum demersum.

Abstract

Copper and cadmium pollution in water is a serious environmental problem because of toxic effects on living organisms and ecosystems, Phytoremediation using aquatic plants is a novel, efficient and low-cost technique for improving wastewater and water quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of Ceratophyllum demersum as an ecological solution for the treatment of copper and cadmium contaminated water. To investigate the ability of Ceratophyllum demersum to absorb and remove the heavy metals copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) from wastewater and reduce their concentrations to environmentally safe level. The absorption capacity of the plant was studied through a laboratory experiment with different copper and cadmium concentrations (0, 5 and 10 ppm). The residual concentrations of copper and cadmium in the water after treatment were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and removal efficiency and chlorophyll content in the plant were also measured. The results show that the highest removal efficiency was Cu (64.54%) and Cd (59.4%) at 5 ppm, and it decreased to Cu (47.4%) and Cd (43%) at 10 ppm. There was a decrease in chlorophyll content with increase in copper and cadmium concentrations which was 2.16mg/g for Cu and 1.5mg/g for Cd in the non-exposed group, at 5 ppm it was decreased to Cu (2.01mg/g) and Cd (1mg/g) but at 10 ppm it was Cu (1.09mg/g) and Cd (0.9mg/g) respectively. The results indicated that Ceratophyllum demersum was efficient in removing copper and cadmium from water but the efficiency was affected by metal concentration.

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