The effect of soil pollution levels on the yielding of maize was investigated to determine whether this species can be used for remediating soils contaminated with cadmium, lead, nickel, copper and zinc. The yields of tops and roots significantly depended on the concentration of heavy metals in soil. The metal contents of maize plants were in the following range (mg ∙ kg^-1 d.m. of soil): Cd – 0.32–19.21; Pb – 0.84–11.09; Ni – 0.70–165.13; Cu – 2.04–30.46; Zn – 36.04–1084.11. The heavy metals studied can be arranged in an order according to the decreasing values of their utilisation (%) by maize. The order is as follows: Zn, Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb, which indicates that maize utilised zinc to the greatest, and lead to the smallest extent. The results of the studies show that maize is suitable for the phytoextraction of heavy metals from soil.

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