Salvinia molesta and Pistia stratiotes as Phytoremediation Agents in Sewage Wastewater Treatment

Accumulation of heavy metals and other pollutants into aquatic ecosystem has negative impacts on the environment and aquatic organisms. Salvinia molesta and Pistia stratiotes are both species that have a rapid growth rate and ability to accumulate heavy metals and absorb nutrients making these plants suitable to be used to treat wastewater through biotechnology method of phytoremediation. This study was conducted to determine the quality of sewage wastewater before and after treatment using phytoremediation. In addition, the objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Salvinia molesta and Pistia stratiotes as agents for the treatment of sewage wastewater. Samples with different aquatic plants with weight of 10, 20 and 30 g were tested for the treatment. One-way ANOVA test showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in the rate of reduction of total suspended solids and ammoniacal nitrogen for 10, 20 and 30 g of Pistia stratiotes and Salvinia molesta, from day 0 to day 7. The study also showed that the removal of total suspended solids and ammoniacal nitrogen using 30 and 20 g of Pistia stratiotes and Salvinia molesta were more efficient compared to 10 g. One-way ANOVA test also showed no significant difference in the rate of reduction of total suspended solids and ammoniacal nitrogen between Pistia stratiotes and Salvinia molesta.