A review on phyto-remediation by aquatic macrophytes: A natural promising tool for sustainable management of ecosystem

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is a significant source of pollution in the environment. Heavy metal contamination in aquifers endangers public health and the freshwater and marine ecosystems. Traditional wastewater treatment methods are mainly expensive, ecologically damaging, ineffective, and take much time. Phyto-remediation is a plant-based technique that gained popularity by discovering heavy metal accumulating plants that can accumulate, transport, and consolidate enormous quantities of certain hazardous contaminants. This is a low-cost sustainable evolving technique featuring long-term utility. Several terrestrial and aquatic vegetation have now been examined for their ability to repair polluted soils and streams. Several submerged plants have already been discovered to remove harmful pollutants such as Zn, As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb & Hg. The most important part of effective phyto-remediation is selecting and choosing effective plant species. Aquatic macrophytes have high effectiveness for removing chemical contaminates. Watercress, hydrilla, alligator weed, pennywort, duckweed plants, water hyacinth are examples of aquatic macrophytes. Several macrophytes' metal absorption capability and procedures have now been explored or analyzed. Most of these research demonstrated that macrophytes had bioremediation capability. The bioremediation capability of macrophytes can be increased even more by employing novel bioremediation techniques. To demonstrate the extensive application of phyto-remediation, a comprehensive summary assessment of the usage of macrophytes for phyto-remediation is compiled.