Abstract:

Soil cadmium pollution is serious in southern China, and has a great deal of adverse effects on agriculture development and safety of agricultural products. Phytoremediation is a promising way to restore cadmium contaminated farmland, but suitable phytoremediation plants are insufficient. In this study, an economic crop of Brassica napus, which is widely planted in the middle and lower reaches the Yangtze River, is taken as raw material to study the effects of excessive cadmium content on Brassica napus growth and the quality of rapeseed oil. Four different cadmium concentrations of 0, 5, 15 and 25 mg/kg are adopted in pot cultivation. The results show that excessive cadmium content could have adverse effects on the growth of Brassica napus, but the cadmium content in rapeseed oil is far lower than that in the international standard, indicating that the rapeseed oil produced on cadmium pollution soil would not affect its consumption value. At the same time, Brassica napus used as remediation plant could increase the income of local farmers and the supply of vegetable oil in China, to alleviate the increasing shortage of edible oil supply. Therefore, Brassica napus is an ideal remediation plant for cadmium contaminated soil.

Key words: cadmium, cadmium pollution, Brassica napus, rapeseed oil, phytoremediation, rapeseed, soil restoration, plant remediation