Abstract. Phytoremediation is the use of specially selected or engineered living green plants for in situ risk reduction and/or removal of pollutants from contaminated media. This process is one of the most rapidly developing components of environmentally friendly (green) and cost-effective technology to abate environmental pollution. The risk reduction could be through the process of removal, degradation, containment of a contaminant or a combination of any of these factors. Bryophyllum pinnatum a herbally-accepted plant in some parts of the world was cultivated in ten different plastic buckets containing heavy metal polluted soil and nurtured for 20 months. The plants were left in ambient conditions and watered periodically. After the first 2 weeks, the plant and soil samples were collected and analysed for total concentration of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb V and Zn. Subsequently, the plant and soil samples were collected monthly and analysed for the total concentrations of these heavy metals, using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. Maximum extracted heavy metals from soil by plant were Cd (3.12±1.03 mg/kg), Cr (32.48±3.21 mg/kg), Cu (81.01±2.3 mg/kg) Ni (11.91±2.32 mg/kg), Pb (399.90 ±4.32 mg/kg) V (5.81±0.08 mg/kg) and Zn (150.51± 0.33) and this occurred in the 4th month of study. This study confirms B. pinnatum as one of the plants that could be employed in phytoremediation of soil polluted by heavy metals.

Plasma (100.00 ml) obtained from bovine blood by centrifugation was fractionatedinto seven precipitates by cold ethanol precipitation. The yield (amount) of proteins in theprecipitates calculated from the standard curve of BSA was 1160.83 mg, 806.57 mg,1149.94 mg, 8.79 mg, 19.88 mg, 21.98 mg, and 13.97 mg respectively, while the totalamount of protein obtained was 3180.00 mg. The precipitates were fractionated into 25fractions each by Anion Exchange Chromatography (AEC) and the amount of protein ineach fraction was obtained by Bradford protein assay. SDS-PAGE analysis was performedon the fractions with proteins and their estimated molecular weights were obtained with theaid of the molecular weight marker. The result indicated that cold ethanol precipitation andanion exchange chromatographic techniques are valuable tools for the purification ofbovine blood to obtain high grade α, β and γ-fibrinogen, IgM (μ-globulin), IgG (γ -globulin),alpha (α –globulin), β-globulin (E-globulin) and albumin.Keywords: Plasma; Chromatography; Electrophoresis; Albumin; Fibrinogen; GlobulinDOI: 10.3126/jncs.v26i0.3624Journal of Nepal Chemical SocietyVol. 26, 2010Page: 2-12

Background: The objective of the study is to determine the nature and the anthropogenic sources of the detected metal pollutant in the sediment of the Ikpoba River. Also, to study the distribution trend and the ecological and health risks of the analyzed metals. The metals were extracted from the sediment through aqua regia digestion and analyzed with an atomic absorption spectrometer. A total of six metals was quantified. Results: The distribution of the average concentration of metals showed that Cd < Cu < Co < Pb < Ni < Fe. The ecological risk assessment showed the values of geo-accumulation (igeo) and contamination indices of the metals to be zero except for Fe. This is an indication of zero pollution of the aquatic system by all detected metals except Fe. However, the enrichment factor (EF) of the metals has values greater than 1.5 in some sampling areas and less than that in others. Furthermore, the values of the ecological risk index (ERI), pollution load index (PLI), and potential ecological risk (PER) of the detected metals were all less than one. The sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) were all low for the tested metals. The human health risk assessment revealed the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) of the analyzed metals to be less than 1, while the carcinogenic risk was also noted to be less than 10-6. Conclusions: Children's ADD values were higher than adults' through dermal and ingestion exposure routes, indicating that children are more vulnerable to metals risk than adults. Furthermore, the values of the EF and multivariate statistics showed the sources of the metals to be a mixture of anthropogenic and natural, with anthropogenic activities leading. However, despite the low ecological and human health risk posed by the various metals, Cd was discovered to be a potential carcinogen and ecological risk to children, and the biota of the studied stream, if released, persisted unabated

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The earliest recorded mention of clay consumption for healing remedy originated approximately 5,000 years ago. But edible clays have been implicated to contain microbial and metallic contaminants despite the inherent medical benefits. This work reports the remediation of some heavy metals, radionuclides and bacterial load from edible kaolin from Kankara, Nigeria. The remediation increased the pH of the samples except when HCl was used; though the colour and taste remained unaltered. The best extractant for arsenic in the kaolin sample was 0.1M HCl with efficiency of 19%, H2O with efficiencies of 98% and 75% was best for removal of Cr and Pb respectively. The extraction resulted to significant reduction of the concentrations of Cr and Pb in the clay(P < 0.05).The remediation of 232 Th and 238 U was best by using surfactant solution (Sodium dodecyl sulphate, SDS)with efficiencies of 46% and 35% respectively;while 0.1M CaCl2 with 17% efficiency was the best for 228 Ra removal. All the clay samples were contaminated with bacteria. Therefore, soil washing technique can be employed to reduce contaminants in edible clay while maintaining the inherent medical benefits of geophagy.