Sustainable approach to treat the hazardous medical waste polluted soil under greenhouse condition with Jatropha integerrima

Background An improper disposal of hazardous medical waste in soil cause severe soil pollution and is becoming challenging to handle by eco-friendly way. Fortunately, the selective plant based treatment on medical waste polluted soil can be a feasible approach. Thus, the metal removal competence of Jatropha integerrima was analyzed in this research on medical waste polluted soil. Methods The soil characteristics like pH, Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Zn, and Mg were analyzed by typical digital pH meter and acid digestion method. The greenhouse experiment was performed with J. integerrima on test soil sample. The plant pigments and peroxidises (POD) activity was recorded in these study respective standard methods. Significant findings Soil has alkaline pH and tested heavy metal contents were beyond the permissible limits. The J. integerrima based phytoremediation study revealed that the soil alkaline pH was considerably minimized as close to neutral. Metal quantities such as Ag: 3.0 ± 0.11, As: 4.46 ± 0.21, Cd: 38.41 ± 1.65, Cr: 36.02 ± 1.3, Hg: 3.25 ± 0.14, Pb: 38.34 ± 1.32, Zn: 45.91 ± 2.28, and Mg: 29.02 ± 1.52 mg Kg−1 were reduced from 100 m soil and they accumulated in plant biomass. The real-field experiment will be performed to assess this plant potential and it will be the future perspective of this study.