Mununga et al., J. Appl. Biosci. 2017 Essai de phytostabilisation des sites contaminés par les éléments traces métalliques dans la région de Lubumbashi : Gamme de tolérance de Jatropha curcas au sulfate de cuivre. 11080Journal of Applied Biosciences 112: 11080-11091 ISSN 1997-5902 Essai de phytostabilisation des sites contaminés par les éléments traces métalliques dans la région de Lubumbashi (RD. Congo) : Gamme de tolérance de Jatropha curcas au sulfate de cuivre. ABSTRACT Problem: Industrial activities, especially in the sector of metallurgy in the city of Lubumbashi, caused a high contamination of the soil around the factories via their atmospheric discharges (channelled and diffuse). However, contaminated soils used for various purposes in forestry, agricultural or residential areas, has negative impact in their surrounding; increasing pollution by adding several amount of heavy metals, constitute an important source of damage for its immediate environment and nearby populations.Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the growth and phytostabilisation potential using Jatropha curcas on a contaminated substrate at different doses of copper sulphate. Methodology and results: The experiment was conducted at the experimental field of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Lubumbashi, following a completely randomized system comprising 4 repetitions of 7 treatments. The determination of the tolerance range was subjected to variance analysis (ANOVA), while the other vegetative parameters were subjected to the multiple comparison test (Tukey test). Thus, the chemical composition of the various treatments was analyzed to deduce the tolerance threshold of Jatropha curcas to cupric contamination. Results indicated that Jatropha curcas was vigorous on treatments with low doses of copper sulphate (250, 500 and 1000 mg.kg-1 CuSO4), while high doses of copper sulphate induced of seedling mortality (2000, 4000 and T6 = 8000 mg.kg-1 CuSO4), except for only transplanted individuals which had intermediate results for the treatment contaminated with (2000 mg.kg-1 CuSO4), unlike to seeded individuals. Furthermore, bioaccumulation and translocation calculations display high levels of copper accumulated in the tissues of the roots due to the soil content and to the low level of Cu, translocation gives Jatropha curcas the power to minimize the rate of passage towards the aerial parts. Conclusion and application of results: the phytostabilisation of soils polluted by the use of heavy metals is an effective and less costly solution, thus the use of Jatropha curcas would be an alternative to achieve the goal being given that can tolerate concentrations of copper itself (Up to 2000 ppm when using transplanting), thusly the domestication of this species and his botanical knowledge is interesting.