Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal-Contaminated Sites: Eco-environmental Concerns, Field Studies, Sustainability Issues, and Future Prospects

摘要

Environmental pollution is of serious ecological concern worldwide with a continually rising public outcry to ensure the safest and healthiest environment. A variety of organic and inorganic pollutants have been reported to cause environmental pollution and severe health hazards in living beings (Maszenan et al. 2011; Saxena and Bharagava 2017). Among them, heavy metals (HMs) are highly notorious pollutants due to their high abundance and non-biodegradable and persistent nature in the environment. Hence, they cause soil/water pollution and toxic, genotoxic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects in living beings (Dixit et al. 2015; Sarwar et al. 2017). They also cause endocrine disruption and neurological disorders even at low concentration (Yadav 2010; Maszenan et al. 2011; Dixit et al. 2015; Sarwar et al. 2017). Any naturally occurring metal/metalloid having an atomic number greater than 20 and elemental density greater than 5 g cm~(-3) is termed as HM.