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Abstract
The present study was conducted to find out the role of Consolida ambigua and Calendula officinalis L. ornamental plants along with Kocuria rhizophila bacterium in phytoremediation of the nickel contaminated soil. One group of ornamental plants was grown in control environment (C), while the other groups were subjected to stress conditions i.e., Treatment with Bacteria (T1), Treatment with Bacteria + Chelator (T2) and Treatment with Chelator (T3). Nickel Chloride (100 mg/kg) and citric acid (5 mM) were applied when the plant species started its normal photosynthetic activity. Preliminary results showed that plant biomass i.e., plant height (cm), fresh and dry weights (g), proline content (µg/g) and photosynthetic pigments (mg/g) were significantly increased with co-application of bacteria and citric acid as compared to non-inoculated and inoculated plant species. The growth pattern observed in order of T2 > T1 > T3 > C. The statistical significant growth with T2 at p ≤ 0.05 suggested the role of Consolida ambigua and Calendula officinalis L. ornamental plants in association with Kocuria rhizophila bacterium were beneficial for phyto-extraction purposes. It was concluded that the aforementioned plants can safely be grown for phytoremediation purposes to reduce soil pollution in term of heavy metal accumulation.