Pytoremediation

Phytoremediation has shown to be very cost effective and a non-invasive alternative to chemical remediation of contaminated sites. The area where soil is the most polluted are residential areas, farm lands and industrial sites (Stephens 1995), all these areas are inhabited by humans so it is essential that the toxic components in the soil are removed in a safe and protective manner. This is where our friendly plant friends come in, phytoremediation uses natural or genetically modified plants; often together with their associated rhizospheric microorganisms which stimulates plant growth and decontaminates soil and water in conjunction with the plants. The plants extract heavy metals, natural aromatic and hydrocarbon compounds and also man-made chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and antibiotics form the soil (Saier 2010). The Best part is this process uses minimal energy to run, all the plants need to use as energy is water, light and plenty of CO2.
The main mechanism behind phytoremediation is that they sequester heavy metals into their cell walls , they chealate (breaking a compound containing a ligand, typically organic bonds of a central metal atom at two or more points, transforms an active poisonous form into an inactive form of the chemical) the toxic metals and transform them into an inactive form. The plants can then store this inactive form in their many vacuoles, these vacuoles are isolated from the important metabolic processes of the plant. Another way that plants can decontaminate soil is that they can take up and metabolize harmful organic compounds, including abundant, environmental, aromatic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyl, halogenated hydrocarbons and then they metabolize these pollutants by degrading them to a non-toxic substance. This converted form can even be used up by the plant and their associated microbial units as a natural source of carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen. And in some rare cases some plants can