Another study is in: Calcium silicate reduced cadmium availability for a food crop while boosting plant performance

The heavy metal Cadmium is still a key ingredient in single-use batteries, was widely used to protect steel from rusting, and continues to be used in paint pigments and plastic treatments. There are many cadmium elevated and contaminated soils due to its unfortunate mismanagement. This is a great straight forward study examining the potential of wollastonite to boost plant health and sequester cadmium, a toxic heavy metal. In this experiment, researchers determined that calcium silicate drastically reduced cadmium uptake overall while cadmium accumulated in less soluble areas of the plant, mainly plant tissues which seemly would help protect the blood of the plant, the metabolism of the plant. For cadmium elevated or contaminated soils this means that cadmium uptake into the plant was reduced with calcium silicate use and for environmental remediation, the incorporation of cadmium into plant tissues can improve the efficiency of cadmium removal by removing the plants from the site. Plus, the soil’s pH was balanced and plant growth overall was enhanced. Another win for the potential of wollastonite!

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Title: Influences of calcium silicate on chemical forms and subcellular distribution of cadmium in Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.

Abstract:
A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of calcium silicate (CS) on the subcellular distribution and chemical forms of cadmium (Cd) in grain amaranths (Amaranthus hypochondriacus L. Cv. ‘K112’) grown in a Cd contaminated soil. Results showed that the dry weight and the photosynthetic pigments contents in grain amaranths increased significantly with the increasing doses of CS treatments, with the highest value found for the treatment of CS3 (1.65 g/kg). Compared with the control, application of CS4 (3.31 g/kg) significantly reduced Cd concentrations in the roots, stems and leaves of grain amaranths by 68%, 87% and 89%, respectively. At subcellular level, CS treatment resulted in redistribution of Cd, higher percentages of Cd in the chloroplast and soluble fractions in leaves of grain amaranths were found, while lower proportions of Cd were located at the cell wall of the leaves. The application of CS enhanced the proportions of pectate and protein integrated forms of Cd and decreased the percentages of water soluble Cd potentially associated with toxicity in grain amaranths. Changes of free Cd ions into inactive forms sequestered in subcellular compartments may indicate an important mechanism of CS for alleviating Cd toxicity and accumulation in plants.

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep40583.pdf

We just added this study to our comprehensive collection of wollastonite research into the environmental and agricultural benefits of wollastonite available on our website: https://canadianwollastonite.com/research/research-environmental-uses/  & https://canadianwollastonite.com/research/research-agricultural-uses/