Usability of Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L.) as Biomonitor for Monitoring Some Heavy Metal Concentrations Caused by Traffic

Environmental pollution has become one of the most important problems of the modern world. Heavy metals have a special importance in air pollution. Although many heavy metal plants are required for living organisms, including plants, they can cause harmful effects at high levels. Some heavy metals have serious toxic effects on organisms even at low levels. In addition, heavy metals do not deteriorate easily in nature and are prone to bioavailability in the human organism. Because of its importance in terms of human and environmental health, monitoring of heavy metal pollution and identifying risky regions is of great importance. Bioindicators are the most important determinants of the change in the concentration of heavy metal in the atmosphere. In this study, the aim of this study is to determine the usability in potential of Horse chestnut in monitoring the heavy metal concentration caused by traffic. For this purpose, it is conducted in the city center of Kastamonu city where traffic is dense, less dense and no traffic is collected from the areas collected leaf, branch and seed samples were measured by measuring the Ba, Al, B, Ca, K and Mg concentrations were determined to change. As a result of the study, it was found that all the elements of the study were statistically significant on organelle basis with at least 95% confidence level; It was also found that the concentration of Ba and Al increased in all organelles due to traffic density