Science


Phytoremediation as an Eco-friendly Technology for Removing Organic Pollutants in the Environment

Phytoremediation was recognized and documented more than 300 years ago (Lasat, 2000). Phytoremediation is a word formed from the Greek “phyto” meaning plant, and the Latin suffix “remedium” meaning to cure or restore. Phytoremediation can be described as the process that brings in plants into an environment and allows them to accumulate the pollutants into their roots and leaves (Azevedo et al, 2005).
Phytoremediation is an eco-friendly technology because it minimizes environmental disruption and in situ treatment preserves the topsoil (Morikawa and Takahashi, 2000). Phytoremediation is a solar energy to cleanup the environments and artistically satisfying. In addition, it is inexpensive (60-80% or less costly than non-bioremediation) and it is useful for many kinds of environmental contaminants.
In phytoremediation of organic pollutants, these compunds will undergo three possibilities (Kruger et al, 1997; Trapp and Karlson, 2001). First, organic pollutants can be degraded in root zone. Plants might influence microorganism that degrade organic pollutants by providing substrates for microbial growth or cometabolism, by allowing the assemblage of unique communities (analogous to biofilms) on root surfaces, and by alteration of soil chemical and physical condition, such as redox, pH, and inorganic nutrient availability. Microbial metabolism often ends with the compound being reduced to CO2, water, etc. Second, organic pollutants can be uptaken into plants. The bioavailability of organic pollutants for plant uptake is primarily under the control of environmental soil factors such as organic matter content, pH, and moisture. Third, some plant species are able to metabolize organic pollutants inside plants. Plants often detoxify organic pollutants by chemically altering them (e.g. by hydroxylation and glycosilation) to more water soluble forms in plant tissue. In many cases, the parent material or chemically altered form is then sequestered in the cell wall matrix or cytoplasm. 

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