Dandelion Emphasis Type="Italic"Taraxacum offic

Authors: Ján Čurlík Martin Kolesár Ondrej Ďurža Edgar Hiller

Publish Date: 2015/08/09

Volume: 70, Issue: 3, Pages: 475-486

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Abstract

Contents of potentially toxic elements Fe Mn Cr Ni Co V Cu and Mo were determined in common dandelion Taraxacum officinale and agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria to show their usefulness as bioindicators of geogenic soil pollution Both plants were collected on geochemically anomalous soils developed on flysch sedimentary rocks Paleogene of Eastern Slovakia which also are composed of weathered detritus of some ultramafic rocks Generally contents of the investigated association of potentially toxic elements are highly increased in these “serpentine”like soils Elevated concentrations were detected in both shoots and roots of the plants The highest values which exceed world average values for plants were observed for Ni content They ranged from 17 to 163 mg kg−1 in dandelion and from 16 to 226 mg kg−1 in agrimony Essential elements such as Mo Cu and Mn were the most concentrated in plants whereas Co V and Cr were the least concentrated Although the bioindication value of the common dandelion for anthropogenic soil pollution is well known it is not mentioned for agrimony in literature and no data exist to indicate the geogenic pollution for both plants Dandelion and agrimony are widely used as herbal drugs therefore our intention also was to point out another fact namely possible high uptake of potentially toxic elements by herbal plants growing on similar soilsThe authors thank Slovak Research and Development Agency SRDA Program Grant APVV023107 Slovak Grant Agency VEGA 1/0989/12 and Grant of Comenius University in Bratislava UK/189/2014 for funding this research We thank anonymous reviewers and editor for valuable comments The funders had no role in study design data collection and analysis decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript

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