[01] Carrenard Odzali César, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. [02] Gédéon Ngiala Bongo, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. [03] Bulubulu Freddy, Laboratory of Vegetal Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, Regional Center of Atomic Energy of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. [04] Goslin Nkosi Gafuene, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. [05] Koto-Te-Nyiwa Ngbolua, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. [06] Joseph Lumande Kasali, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Eichhornia crassipes is a depolluting plant having properties of absorbing heavy metals, minerals and other chemicals present in its environment. E. crassipes can be an excellent substrate for mushroom cultivation but because of galloping industrialization, and some anthropogenic activities that tend to pollute water and this leads to the accumulation of heavy metals in water hyacinth. The main goal of the current research was to give a contribution to a better knowledge of E. crassipes, a species used as a substrate for the cultivation of edible mushrooms, but also liable to accumulate toxic elements and the identification of these elements contained in its various organs by determining their concentrations. The X-rays emitted by the material will be converted using an appropriate detector into an electrical voltage of which the amplitude is proportional to the energy of the incident X-ray photon and makes it possible to carry out the qualitative analysis. The findings of the current research show that areas having anthropogenic activities contain a lot of pollutants precisely heavy metals. The concentration of these metals is higher in the roots than in the aerial part (stem and leaves) and it was observed that these toxic elements accumulate precisely in the roots. While major bio-elements are in a high concentration in the aerial parts than in the roots.

Water Hyacinth, Heavy Metals, Bioaccumulation, Water Pollution

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