Phytoremediation of persistent organic pollutants

Abstract

Toxicity, chemical stability, bioaccumulation, and long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) cause environmental and human health hazards, and demand the cleanup of remnants from previous applications. Phytoremediation uses living higher plants for the removal and biochemical decomposition of environmental pollutants and became a front-runner among cleanup technologies. The efficiency of plants as detoxifiers, filters or traps has been proven in cleaning up soils polluted with crude oil, explosives, landfill leachates, metals, pesticides, and solvents. Although phytoremediation of POPs is made very difficult by their low bioavailability, recent literature indicated that some plants (primarily those belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family) are capable of taking up significant amounts of POPs and accumulate them in their tissues. A joint French-Hungarian research project will investigate the possibility of phytoremediation of POPs