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A group of scientists in the Philippines has just made yet another noteworthy discovery as manifested by the recent unveiling of their research findings on a new species of metal-eating plant, scientifically known as the
Rinorea niccolifera.
Rinorea Niccolifera is just one of the 450 hyper-accumulator plant
species scrutinized by a team of plant experts in the Philippines.
Originally, the team has been examining a total of 300,000 vascular
plants for this research project. And later on, it was found out that this
plant species (rinorea niccolifera) can actually absorb huge amounts of metal
without being poisoned.
Professor Edwino Fernando, lead researcher from the University of the
Philippines and author of a new study about Rinorea Niccolifera said the leaves
of this plant can captivate an all-out 18,000 parts per million of nickel. It’s
a thousand times more safely absorbed than any other known metal-absorber
plant.
Researchers in their press interview said:
“The new species was discovered on the western part of Luzon Island in
the Philippines, an area known for soils rich in heavy metals."
Rinorea Niccolifera is classified among the plants that can clean up
polluted soils and absorb commercially viable metals.
The discovery of Rinorea niccolifera does not only denote anew
interesting finding but also entails significant benefits to the environment.
Considering the plant's nature that is capable of removing a huge amount of harmful metallic metals from polluted grounds, it represents a potential resolution to the country's ongoing problem on environmental pollution.
Apparently the team's discovery could offer a distinctive resolution to pollution problems brought forth by the mining industry.
Considering the plant's nature that is capable of removing a huge amount of harmful metallic metals from polluted grounds, it represents a potential resolution to the country's ongoing problem on environmental pollution.
Apparently the team's discovery could offer a distinctive resolution to pollution problems brought forth by the mining industry.
Augustine Doronila of the University of Melbourne and co-author of the
study said:
"Hyper-accumulator plants have great potentials for the development of
green technologies, for example, 'phytoremediation' and 'phytomining'."
The term phytoremediation refers to how hyper-accumulator plants
eradicate heavy metals from contaminated grounds/soils. Phytomining on the
other hand refers to the process in which hyper-accumulator plants are utilized
to grow and harvest commercially viable metals in plant shoots from metal rich
soils/grounds.
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