Biology A-3

Ira Mascardo

16 December 2013

Abstract
This research/experiment that I am conducting is to see if cilantro can lessen heavy metals in
soil for an alternative instead of using expensive treatment. I am using chia seeds, because it is
easier to grow. Basically Im placing chia seeds in separators and placing 1mL of .5 molar
solution of Iron II Chloride, that will act as my heavy metal contaminate, in two hundred of my
separated plants. I will leave one hundred as a control. In one hundred of my iron contaminated
plants, I will mix a pinch of cilantro in the contaminated soil. If it works, the Iron II Chloride will
not affect the growth of the chia seeds. You should see evident difference between the control
group plants and the contaminated plants. In my result I discovered that cilantro affected the
plant growth in a positive way.
Introduction: Lessening Heavy Metal Toxicity with Cilantro
Heavy metals can be found in plants everywhere although it is not harmful when taken into
consumption in small amounts, it is however harmful when a plant takes in too much metals
from the soil and that is known as heavy metal toxicity (Singh, 2005). It poses a serious threat to
us when the heavy metals transfer toxic elements in the food that we eat and has high persistence
in the environment (Springer, 2012). Heavy metal toxicity it is known to have its negative effects
in humans, they especially pose a threat when they do not get metabolize in the body and
accumulate in the tissues. It also is known to have negative effects on plants, damaging the roots
and leaves. Although it seems like the plants carry heavy metals from the start, they actually
obtain most of the heavy metals from the soil.

A new way of lessening heavy metals is a process called phytoextraction and I will give more
information about this in my paper because I feel like this method will clash with my experiment
and I want to clear any misunderstandings. I will give a brief summary of phytoextraction in the
introduction. Basically phytoextraction is the process of using plants to extract heavy metals
from soil (P.Zhuang, 2007). It is said to be low on cost and helps the plants near it by absorbing
heavy metals on soil with high heavy metal concentration.
On my experiment I will be using cilantro and that could be linked to phytoextraction, but
instead of planting cilantro on the contaminated area, I will put dried cilantro leaves near the
roots of the plant and it absorb the heavy metals when added water. With this method I predict
that the cilantro will absorb the metals near the plant and since the dried cilantro can last two
years, you dont have to add new dried cilantro in a daily basis and I think it will be more cost
efficient than phytoextraction because you dont need to tend to the plants that absorb the metals
and you dont have to replace it often because dried cilantro has a long life. You could also add
more anytime, transport it easily, and it weight lets you carry a huge amount at one time.
Cilantro is known to detoxify heavy metals from the human body, but not really known to
detoxify soil with heavy metals. Cilantro loosens toxic metal from tissues by being composed of
chemical compounds that bind themselves to them (Global Healing Center, 2013). The active
compounds in cilantro are: Volatile oil contains borneol, coriandrol, camphor, p-cymene,
geraniol, limonene, and alpha-pinenes; trans-tridec-2-enale is responsible for the distinctive
aroma. The masin fixed oils are linolenic acid, petroselinic acid, and oleic acid. Other
components include the hydroxycoumarins scopoletin and umbelliferone (Monterey Bay Spice
Company ,2013)

Iron II Chloride is FeCl2 in chemical formula, and in this experiment I will be using an
aqueous version of Iron II Chloride that is soluble in water and is yellow in color. Iron II
Chloride can change to Iron III Chloride when left alone to be oxidized. That is why it is
important to use the Iron II Chloride before it turns dark brown. The dark brown color indicated
that the Iron II Chloride has been turned into Iron III Chloride.

Materials and Methods

Materials

Tiny pots or materials to make separators.(Reference my pictures )

Soil

Watering can or spray

Water

Dried cilantro, or fresh cilantro

Oven (If you are going to make the dried cilantro )

Fast growing seeds (in this case chia seeds)

Iron II Chloride

Stove and pot to make the solution.

Space to place the plants in.

Procedure1.) Make or buy 300 pots with holes or separators.

2.) Make and label four sets with 100 pots each.
3.) Label one control, another Iron II Chloride, third one cilantro.

4.) Fill the first 3 sets with soil

5.) Make a solution to contaminate the soil. We will be using Iron II chloride. Remember that the
Iron II chloride cannot exceed 1 molar. In this experiment we will be using .5 molar of Iron II
chloride and adding that in boiling water. It should be all dissolved and turned an amber color

and thats when you need to stop boiling it.

6.) After that put equal amounts of the solution in the 2 sets of plants and make more solution if
needed. I placed 1mL in each separator. (Leave the set labeled control alone.)

7.) Take a bunch of cilantro and take the stems off and in the meanwhile preheat the oven to 250200 degrees Fahrenheit. Get a cookie sheet and spray it with a little non-stick spray and place the
cilantro leaves in. Bake for about 20-30 minutes. Be sure to check them at least once. (You can
also buy dried cilantro if you want to. Which I did that way.)

8.) In the set labeled cilantro take about a pinch (this really depends on the size of your pot.
You can add more if you have a bigger pot) of dried cilantro and place it near the seed preferably
under the seed. Mix it with the soil when you see a thin layer of cilantro on the top.

9.) Plant the chia seeds in all the sets.

10.) Water equal amount of every twice a week and write down observation and the height of the
plant with the pot. In this experiment I used a spray bottle and sprayed the seeds with water.
Later you can subtract the height of the pot and find the height of the plant.

11.) After everything is done, measure 100 of each group of grown chia seeds and average each
group to a number. Then divide that number to the days you have started growing them.

Results

Control Observations
Day 1

Average Growth (cm)

There is no unusual activity. Only dark brown, semiwet garden soil can be seen.
Sprouts are barely visible, but I see tiny heads of the
plant.
There are sprouts visible with translucent stem and a
pale yellow head.
The sprouts are taller, but they still have the same
translucent stem and pale yellow head.
The stems start to turn pale green and the head turn
yellow green.
The plants are growing taller, but it looks mostly like
Day 5.
The plants are starting to have leaves.

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

0.377
0.754
1.132
1.509
1.886
2.263

Day 8

The plants continue being taller. The leaves are

spreading out slightly.
The plants look slanted because they are going where
the light source is.
The plants looks in like Day 9.

Day 9
Day 10

2.64
3.017
3.395

Day 11

The plants are steadily growing taller.

3.772

Day 12

The stems are pale green and translucent while the

leaves are forest green color.

Control Plant Growth (in cm)

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

Plant Growth (in cm)

Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

4.526

Iron II Chloride Observations

Day 1

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

I can only see brown, semi-wet soil garden soil.

Although I see some stains from the Iron II Chloride
on the sides on some paper separators. It was golden
yellow at first, and then it turned dark brownishyellow overtime.
Sprouts are barely visible, but I see tiny heads of the
plant.
Sprouts are barely visible, but I see tiny heads of the
plant. It looks like Day 2.
There are sprouts visible with translucent stem and a
pale yellow head.
The sprouts are taller, but they still have the same
translucent stem and pale yellow head.
The stems start to turn pale green and the head turn
yellow green.
Looks like Day 6 still. I observed that some seed
were dormant and was just in the soil.
Leaves are starting to grow.

Average Growth (cm)

0

0.31
0.62
0.929
1.239
1.549
1.859
2.168

Day 9

The plants are getting taller.

2.478

Day 10
Day 11

The plants continue being taller. The leaves are

spreading out slightly.
The plants are steadily growing. There are no
changes in physical appearance.

2.788
3.098

Day 12

The plants look taller with slightly bigger green

leaves.

3.717

Iron II Chloride Plant Growth (in cm)

4
3.5
3
2.5
2
Plant Growth (in cm)

1.5
1
0.5
0
Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Cilantro Observations
Day 1

Day 2

I can only see brown, semi-wet garden soil in the

top. I also see speckled bots of green from the
cilantro and I also see some dark brown-yellow
stains left when pouring the Iron II Chloride.
Sprouts are barely visible, but I see tiny of the plant.

Average Growth (cm)

0

0.385

Day 3

Sprouts are barely visible, but I see tiny heads of the

plant. It looks like Day 2.
There are sprouts visible with translucent stem and a
pale yellow head.
The sprouts are taller, but they still have the same
translucent stem and pale yellow head.
The stems start to turn pale green and the head turn
yellow green.
Looks like Day 6 still.

Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

0.77
1.154
1.539
1.924
2.309

Leaves are starting to grow. I cant see the cilantro

speckle anymore.
The plants continue being taller. The leaves are
spreading out slightly.
The leaves continue to get bigger.

Day 8
Day 9
Day 10

2.693
3.078
3.463

Day 11

The plants grew taller and the leaves are slightly

bigger.
The cilantro group had the biggest leaves in my
opinion and had pale, green translucent stems.

Day 12

Cilantro Plant Growth (in cm)

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

Plant Growth (in cm)

Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

3.848
4.617

Discussion
Iron II Chloride may be harmful to plants at feed concentrations of between 5 and 200 ppm
(Lenntech B.V, 1998-2013). For my experiment I had a .5 molar solution (500 ppm) of Iron II
Chloride which is above the scale, which will make it easier to spot the difference between the
control set and contaminated set.
What I didnt think about, was that I was making the soil hypertonic when I placed the Iron II
Chloride on the soil. So the soil contained more Iron II Chloride than the plant. My plant should
have shriveled up and wilted because hypertonic means that there will be less water on the
outside of the plant cell than the inside. However, because I watered the plant often and I only
placed 1 mL of Iron II Chloride, over time the water diluted the Iron II Chloride solution.
Therefore, the Iron II Chloride did not have much of an affect in the chia seeds than predicted.
My possible sources of error can possibly be the fact that they dont have the same number of
seeds and they also dont have the same number of cilantro in the cilantro set. I roughly

measured the amount with my fingers and spread them out unevenly distributing a random
amount in each separator. More errors can be that I distributed the Iron II Chloride solution very
early, making it more prone to dilution. I should have distributed it when the plants were in the
middle stages of growing, so that the solution can affect the plants more.
According to my data cilantro did in fact help affect the plant growth in a positive way. In
fact, the plant grew taller in average, with the cilantro than the control. Although the experiment
aligned with my hypothesis, I had a question in my mind. The cilantro degraded in the middle of
the growing process. So in Day 6, I could not see the cilantro speckles anymore. If it did absorb
the Iron II Chloride solution, then when it bio degrade did it release the Iron II Chloride back in
the soil? I also had another question. I know my experiment was very flawed, but why did the
Cilantro group grow taller than the Control group.
I know Chia seeds doesnt like to compete with other organisms, and I would assume even
with itself. I think that since some of the seeds in the Iron II Chloride group and the Cilantro
group were dormant, there was not much of a competition to light and water since there are
fewer plants. That is why the cilantro was able to grow in a faster rate than the control group. I
think the Cilantro had a key role into the growth rate of the Cilantro group; since it will help
filter out the impurities in the soil that will strain the plants growth.

Literature Cited
Global Healing Center. (2013, August 22). The Health Benefits Of Cilantro. Retrieved November 11, 2013,
from Global Healing Center: http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/healthbenefits-of-cilantro/
Lenntech B.V. (1998-2013). Iron (Fe) and water. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from Water Treatment
Solution Lenntech: http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/water/iron/iron-and-water.htm
Monterey Bay Spice Company. (2013). Cilantro (Domestic). Retrieved November 8, 2013, from Monterey
Bay Spice Company: http://www.herbco.com/p-302-cilantro-domestic-cs.aspx
P.Zhuang, Q. Y. (2007, September). Phytoextraction Of Heavy Metals By Eight Plant Species. In Q. Y.
P.Zhuang, Water,Air, and Soil Pollution (pp. 235-242). Springer Netherlands.
Singh, V. (2005). Metal Toxicity and Tolerance in Plants and Animals. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons.
Springer. (2012). Metal Toxicity in Plants: Perception,Signaling, and Remediation. London: SpringerVerlag Berlin Heidelberg.