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International Journal of Agricultural Papers 2016; 1 (2): 36–41

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Removal of Arsenic by Water Hyacinth from Arsenic

Contaminated Water
Aminul Islam1*, Pranesh Kumar Saha1, Mosud Iqbal1, Md. Nazrul Islam1, Md. Nayeem
Ahmed1
1. Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh.

Abstract
A green-house experiment was conducted at the green-house of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur, Bangladesh
to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of water-hyacinth to remove Arsenic (As) from water. Three treatments (As0 = 0 ppm
As, As1 = 1 ppm As and As2 = 2 ppm As) were used in this study. Results revealed that the percent of As removal by water-hyacinth
increased with experimentation time. Arsenic removed after 2 hours and 4 hours from As1 treatment were 25% and 32%,
respectively while it was 22% and 29%, respectively from As2 treatment. After 7 days of experimentation, the highest 90% As was
removed from the As1 treatment while only 61 % As was removed from the As2 treatment. It is shown that the highest amount of
As was accumulated in plant root. Plant leaf accumulated the least amount of As over the period of experiment. With the duration
of time, water-hyacinth was found to be more potential to remove As from the contaminated water. The percent recovery of As
decreased with time.
Key words: Arsenic, water-hyacinth, As removal, As accumulation, As recovery
Citation to this Article: Islam A, Saha PK, Iqbal M, Islam MN, Ahmed MN. Removal of Arsenic by Water Hyacinth from Arsenic Contaminated
Water. International Journal of Agricultural Papers 2016; 1 (2): 36–41.

1. Introduction
Arsenic (As) is a pollutant and its presence in soils is a serious threat to environment and crop quality due to its toxic
effect. The concentration of As that is toxic to plants and soil biota does not affect animal and human health [1].
Ground water contamination by As has been reported from Bangladesh [1-3]. Though it is found naturally in the
Earth’s crust, certain geological formations in some regions such as Bangladesh, the western USA, Mexico, northern
Chile, Argentina, Hungary, Romania, Mongolia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, and India contain higher levels
of arsenic and therefore cause the groundwater aquifers to have higher arsenic levels [4]. In very small quantities, it
plays an essential role in animal metabolism but in large amounts it is damaging due to its carcinogenicity [5]. At
present time, the most common way to clean heavy metals contaminated water is a coagulation/filtration method that
involves removing pollutants by chemically conditioning particles to agglomerate into larger particles that can be
separated and settled, followed by running the contaminated water through various filters that trap the pollutants and
hold them for disposal. One of the major problems with this method is the sludge-like by-product that is produced as
a result of the settled and trapped contaminants [6]. Use of these methods for cleanup/disposal of contaminated water
is very expensive and disruptive to the habitats that surround the water [7]. Scientists are searching for new and
economic ways to alleviate this contamination problem.

* Corresponding author: Aminul Islam

E-mail: aminbrri@gmail.com

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Islam A. et al. International Journal of Agricultural Papers 2016; 1(2): 36–41

One new and promising method that has been drawing interest for many years is called phytoremediation or
phytoextraction. Simply put, phytoextraction is the use of plants to remove contaminants from water by pulling the
contaminants out of the water through the root system and into the plant body [6]. This makes disposal easier and
much less expensive because properly destroying the plants and the contaminants that are removed from water by
plants are various carcinogenic metals such as copper, chromium, arsenic, mercury, etc [8]. Water hyacinth is one of
the most studied aquatic plants as a bioaccumulator of pollutants especially for heavy metals [9-10]. It is a free-floating
weed [11] that multiplies very quickly. It has fibrous roots and obtains all of its nutrients from the water. It is very
common in Bangladesh.
Several scientists have looked at water hyacinths’ ability to remove arsenic from water, with somewhat differing
results. Some studies have reported that water hyacinths are very effective at removing arsenic from contaminated
water. Misbahuddin and Fariduddin [12] found that just the roots of water hyacinths removed 81% from 400 ppb
arsenic solution. The entire water hyacinth plant (roots, leaves, stems, etc) was reported in the same study to have
removed 100% of the arsenic and to have done so in only three to six hours. Other scientists have reported that water
hyacinths do not have very high arsenic removal capabilities. Zhu et al. [13] reported that water hyacinths convert a
large portion of the arsenate (As V) to the more toxic form of arsenic, arsenite (As III), within the plant itself. From
the above discussion, it is shown that there is a controversial opinion about the removal of As by water hyacinth among
the scientists. So, actually what is happening? To find out the phenomena, a green house experiment was set-up in the
BRRI, Gazipur. Aim of the experiment is to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of water hyacinth to remove As
from water.
2. Materials and methods
The experiment was conducted at the green house of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI). The experiment was
laid out in a randomized completely block (RCB) design with three replications. Three treatments were tested. These
were As0 = 0 ppm, As1= 1 ppm, and As2= 2 ppm. Nine water buckets (locally called “charii’, volume 30 L) were
selected. Each of them was initially filled with 20 L of pond water collected from the nearby pond of the BRRI,
Gazipur. Initial As concentration of the pond water was determined. Stock solution of 1000 ppm As was prepared by
using Na2HAsO4.7H2O. Twenty ml stock solution of As was added in 3 buckets to have final concentration of 1 ppm.
Again, 40 ml was poured in another 3 buckets to get ultimate concentration of 2 ppm. Prior to the addition of As
solution, the equal amount of water was initially discarded from each bucket to maintain the ultimate volume of water
at 20L. In the same time, 3 buckets were remained at control condition. Then almost equally sized 14 water hyacinth
samples were chosen and placed in each bucket. A layout of the experiment is shown in Fig. 1.
Water and two plant samples were collected at 0 hr (immediately after soaking of plants), 2 hr, 4 hr, 1 day, 2 days, 4
days, and 7 days after soaking of plants in the solution of different As concentrations. Then the collected samples were
air dried for 7 days and separated the root, leaf stalk and leaf portions of the water hyacinth. Then, the samples were
oven dried at 700C for 4 days and the dry matter weight of each sample was recorded. The plant samples were
processed and digested with tri-acid mixture for As analysis [14]. Water samples and different parts of water hyacinth
were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) with flow injection hydride generation system
(PerkinElmer, Aanalyst-100). Obtained data were statistically analyzed using IRRIStat version 4.1.

R3As1
R2As2 R3As0
R3As2
R1As0 R2As1

R1As2 R2As0

R1As1

Fig.1. A set up of green-house experiment with water-hyacinth at BRRI green-house, Gazipur, 2010.

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Islam A. et al. International Journal of Agricultural Papers 2016; 1(2): 36–41

3. Results and discussion

The depletion of As concentration in water with time due to growing of water hyacinth are shown in Fig. 2 and Table
1. Water As concentration, with a initial As level of both 1 and 2 ppm, were found to be decreased with time. After 2
hours the concentration was 0.744 and 1.479 ppm, respectively. The concentration reached at 0.102 and 0.729 ppm
within 7 days. The decrease in As concentration was significant at 0.1% level in both the cases. However, the percent
of As removal were varied with time. After 2 hours 25% and after 4 hours 32% arsenic was removed from 1 ppm
solution while it was 22% and 29%, respectively from 2 ppm solution. However, in the later stage, higher percentage
of As was removed from 1 ppm than 2 ppm As solution. The highest 90% As was removed from the 1 ppm solution.
In the meantime, only 61% As was removed from 2 ppm solution. The higher percentage of As removal from lower
As solution may be attributed to the high-affinity As uptake kinetics [15].
Table1. Changes in arsenic concentration in water due to growing water hyacinth at different added concentration of arsenic.
Treatment Concentration of arsenic (ppm) in water
0 time 2 hr 4 hr 1 day 2 day 4 day 7day
As0 0.0004 0.0005 0.0007 0.0005 0.0006 0.0004 0.0007
As1 0.985 0.744 0.669 0.511 0.328 0.210 0.102
As2 1.89 1.479 1.346 1.164 0.994 0.827 0.729
LSD0.05 0.301 0.304 0.266 0.262 0.127 0.058 0.091
CV (%) 14.0 18.4 17.9 21.4 13.4 8.0 16.4
As0 = without arsenic; As1 = 1 ppm arsenic; As2 = 2 ppm arsenic.

As0
2.0 As1
As (ppm) in water

1.5 As2

1.0

0.5

0.0
0 2 4 24 48 96 168
Time (hr)
Fig. 2. Changes of As concentration (ppm) in water with time.

The changes in arsenic concentration in different parts of water hyacinth with changing As concentration in water is
shown in Fig.3 and Table 2. It was shown that the highest amount of As was absorbed in plant root. Plant leaf absorbed
the least amount of As over the period of experiment. In all the three parts of plant higher amount of As was absorbed
over time.
In case of 1 ppm As solution, the As conc. was ranged from 0.22 to 36.61 ppm, 0.15 to 41.56 ppm and 4.51 to 484.98
ppm in the plant leaf, leaf stalk and root, respectively, over time. In case of 2 ppm As solution, the concentration of
As in plant parts were ranged from 0.17 to 42.11 ppm, 0.20 to 46.79 ppm and 4.51 to 711.13 ppm in leaf, leaf stalk
and root respectively over time. While in 0 ppm As solution, it was ranged from 0.15 to 0.22 ppm in leaf, 0.19 to 0.23
ppm in leaf-stalk and 4.14 to 6.90 ppm in root over time. The change in arsenic concentration in different parts of
water hyacinth with time was significant at 0.1 % level. As a result, plant accumulated higher amount of As with
increasing length of time.
An interesting finding of this experiment is that after 2 hours plant root accumulated more than 70 times higher As
from 1 ppm solution than that of plant leaf. After 7 days the difference was only 13 times. Similar trend of As
accumulation was also observed in case of root vs leafstalk. However, in case of 2 ppm solution some deviations from
this trend were observed. Translocation of As appears to be a slow process in the plant. It could be due to the greater
As affinity in the root system. In general, all arsenic compounds are strongly adsorbed to root surfaces from solution.
This adsorption is apparently limited only by availability. More toxic arsenic compound is less readily translocated
from the root system [16]. On the other hand, Higher As accumulation in roots than that of any other plant parts was
reported by Marin et al. [17-18].

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Islam A. et al. International Journal of Agricultural Papers 2016; 1(2): 36–41

Table 2. Changes in arsenic concentration in different parts of water hyacinth with changing As concentration in water.
Treatment Concentration of arsenic (ppm) in water hyacinth
Leaf
0 time 2 hrs 4 hrs 1 day 2 day 4 day 7day
As0 0.15 0.18 0.21 0.22 0.21 0.22 0.22
As1 0.22 2.62 4.80 7.04 14.44 27.60 36.61
As2 0.17 4.21 4.32 32.21 31.84 40.46 42.11
LSD0.05 0.063 0.846 0.847 2.142 2.978 6.406 6.748
CV (%) 15.7 15.5 11.8 7.1 8.5 12.4 11.3
Leaf stalk
0 time 2 hr 4 hr 1 day 2 day 4 day 7 day
As0 0.19 0.20 0.22 0.22 0.24 0.24 0.23
As1 0.15 5.99 14.51 15.79 24.54 35.72 41.56
As2 0.20 13.87 15.55 25.72 38.77 40.66 46.79
LSD0.05 0.052 0.857 0.808 2.163 2.925 6.456 6.798
CV (%) 13.0 16.2 11.5 7.3 8.3 12.5 11.4
Root
0 time 2 hr 4 hr 1 day 2 day 4 day 7day
As0 4.14 6.03 5.99 6.64 6.72 6.82 6.90
As1 4.51 187.23 252.14 316.70 435.03 505.62 484.98
As2 4.51 249.26 526.82 630.59 608.28 668.72 711.13
LSD0.05 0.81 38.10 60.94 48.31 15.39 52.74 20.13
CV (%) 8.3 11.4 10.3 6.7 1.9 5.9 2.2

As0 As0 As0

50 As1 50 As1 800 As1
As (ppm) in leaf stalk

As2 As2 As2

As (ppm) in leaf

As (ppm) in root
40 40 600
30 30
400
20 20
10 10 200

0 0 0
0 2 4 24 48 96 168 0 2 4 24 48 96 168 0 2 4 24 48 96 168
Time (hr) Time (hr) Time (hr)
(a) Leaf (b) Leaf stalk (c) Root
Fig. 3. Changes of As concentration in different parts of water hyacinth with time.

Arsenic uptake by different parts of water hyacinth is shown in Table 3. In case of 1 ppm As added solution, the As
uptake was ranged from 0.34 to 55.82 μg, 0.36 to 95.44 μg and 11.24 to 1543.20 μg in the plant leaf, leaf stalk and
root, respectively, over time. In case of 2 ppm As solution, uptake of As in plant parts were ranged from 0.31 to 62.05
μg, 0.50 to 101.09 μg and 10.34 to 2218.18 μg in leaf, leaf stalk and root respectively over time. While in 0 ppm As
added solution, it was ranged from 0.21 to 0.34 μg in leaf, 0.41 to 0.59 μg in leaf-stalk and 9.50 to 16.41 μg in root
over time. Arsenic accumulation was increased with the increase of soaking time.
The overall % recovery of As was found to be decreased with the period of time in both treatment. After 2 hours the
percentages were 77.36 and 75.89 % in initially added 1 and 2 ppm As solution, respectively (Table 4). But the values
were decreased to about 19.08 and 42.42 % at the end of the experiment. In the experiment, we consider only two
dimension of the fate of added As. First, the amount of As translocated from water to plant, and second, the remaining
As ultimately present in the water.
4. Conclusions
Water hyacinth may be used as a bioaccumulator to remove As from water. Among the different parts of water
hyacinth, root was found to be accumulated the highest amount of As. After 7 days, 90 and 61% As was removed
from the 1 and 2 ppm solution, respectively. With the duration of time, water hyacinth was found to be more potential
to remove As from the contaminated water. At the end of 7 days, the total uptake by two plants was 3 times higher
than the initial 2 hr in both 1 and 2 ppm solution.

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Islam A. et al. International Journal of Agricultural Papers 2016; 1(2): 36–41

Table 3. Arsenic uptake (μg As/2 plants) by different parts of water hyacinth
Sampling time As added ( 0 ppm)
(Time) Leaf (μg As) Leaf stalk (μg As) Root (μg As) Total (μg As)
0h 0.21 0.41 9.50 10.13
2h 0.27 0.48 13.08 13.83
4h 0.28 0.43 9.47 10.18
1d 0.34 0.54 11.12 12.00
2d 0.29 0.48 11.20 11.96
4d 0.31 0.52 12.20 13.03
7d 0.32 0.59 16.41 17.33
As added ( 1 ppm)
0h 0.34 0.36 11.24 11.94
2h 4.25 14.26 566.75 585.25
4h 7.52 29.72 753.15 790.39
1d 10.22 37.57 823.29 871.09
2d 21.76 51.87 1052.53 1126.17
4d 34.47 70.81 1490.73 1596.01
7d 55.82 95.44 1543.2 1694.47
As added ( 2 ppm)
0h 0.31 0.50 10.34 11.15
2h 7.22 31.93 735.36 774.51
4h 5.84 31.80 1009.60 1047.25
1d 37.22 44.01 1282.52 1363.76
2d 41.52 58.55 1273.00 1373.07
4d 47.33 72.40 1359.31 1479.03
7d 62.05 101.09 2218.18 2381.31
Table 4. An apparent arsenic balance sheet and recovery.
Sl No. As added Sampling time Total As As remained in Total As (μg) Balance (μg) Recovery (%)
(μg) uptake by water (μg/20L) in plant and
plants (μg) water
For 1 ppm
1 20000 0h 11.94 0 11.94
2 20000 2h 585.25 14886.66 15471.91 4528.09 77.36
3 20000 4h 790.39 13389.23 14179.62 5820.38 70.90
4 20000 1d 871.09 10229.57 11100.66 8899.34 55.50
5 20000 2d 1126.17 6557.112 7683.28 12316.72 38.42
6 20000 4d 1596.01 4192.033 5788.04 14211.96 28.94
7 20000 7d 1694.47 2121.263 3815.73 16184.27 19.08
Total 6675.32
For 2 ppm
8 40000 0h 11.15 0 11.15
9 40000 2h 774.51 29581.68 30356.18 9643.82 75.89
10 40000 4h 1047.25 26918.05 27965.30 12034.70 69.91
11 40000 1d 1363.76 23276.3 24640.06 15359.94 61.60
12 40000 2d 1373.07 19880.96 21254.03 18745.97 53.14
13 40000 4d 1479.03 16533.94 18012.98 21987.02 45.03
14 40000 7d 2381.31 14585.08 16966.40 23033.60 42.42
Total 8430.08

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the grants from the IFAD through IRRI Dhaka office, Bangladesh.
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