Chinese scientists are now growing poison-accumulating plants to ?suck up? poisonous elements, mostly heavy metals like arsenic, copper and zinc, from polluted soil to repair contaminated lands. ?In some parts of China, scientists have grown poison-accumulating plants, widely regarded as a ?hyperaccumulators? in academic circles, on poisonous soil to accumulate heavy metals,? said Chen Tongbin, a researcher with the Geographic Science and Resources institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Chen?s research team has begun to renovate about 333.3 hectares of arsenic polluted fields in south China?s Huanjiang County. According to Chen, water containing minerals at the upper reaches of rivers always pollute lower watercourses during floods in south China?s Yunnan and Gianxi provinces, causing crop losses or even infertility in large areas of lower-reach fields. ?The soil pollution in Guangxi is serious. Soil contamination is the most dangerous because it is hidden, slow and fundamental,? Chen told Xinhua. Chen is leading the research on soil recovery technology that is funded by the state high technology advancement plan and was initiated in March 1986.

A global leader in technology for collecting arsenic from soil, Chen?s team proved that a brake fern widely found in southern China, with strong ability to draw arsenic from the soil.