Potential of Ornamental Plants For Phytoremediation

Abstract

Phytoremediation is a type of bioremediation process that utilize various types of plants to eliminate, relocate, stabilize, as well as destroy the hazardous contaminants like heavy metals (HMs), organic contaminants, petroleum by-products, etc., present in the soil and groundwater. The plants which are important from economic point of view with shorter life cycle persuade researchers to carry out phytoremediation to remove hazardous materials from environment. The ornamental plants provide a different aspect to the phytoremediation of polluted terrestrial and aquatic environments. Ornamental plants are cultivated for esthetic reasons and include a wide range of plants with different sizes, colors, and shapes grown in different types of landscapes and climate. Ornamental plants generally include different types of plants, ranging from lower to high level, herbs to shrubs, and marine to terrestrial ones. Moreover, ornamentals are not eaten, so the risks of hazardous substances particularly HMs have less chances of entering the food chain. Ornamental plants have the additional benefit of enhancing the environment’s esthetics in addition to cleaning up of the environment and generating supplementary revenue as well as additional employment opportunities. By growing ornamental plants and using their ability to conserve the esthetic beauty of the city, a polluted region can be created for ecotourism purposes. After their culturing, they could be sold as house hold plants, which will result in monetary advantage. This chapter seeks to explain the mechanism of phytoremediation and the potential use of ornamental plants for phytoremediation of contaminated environments. 24Different ornamental plants which remediate various hazardous contaminants are summarized. Also, the benefits of using ornamental plants over other plants for phytoremediation are discussed.