Ornamental plants for the phytoremediation of heavy metals: Present knowledge and future perspectives

Abstract

Environmental matrices are polluted with the plethora of contaminants, and among these, the concerns related to heavy metals (HMs) are also included. Due to the low cost in a long-term application and environmental friendliness, the use of biological remediation has gained significant attention in recent decades. The use of ornamental plants (OPs) in the field of phytoremediation is scarcely reported, and the impacts of HMs on OPs have also not been investigated in great depth. The OPs mediated HMs remediation can simultaneously remove contaminants and bring improvement in aesthetics of the site. The biomass of OPs produced after such activities can be used and sold as pot plants, cut flowers, essential oils, perfumes, air fresheners production, metal phytomining, and feedstock in silk production. The OPs also present a lower risk of HMs bioaccumulation compared to crop plants. This review focuses on the current knowledge of HMs toxicity to OPs, their applicability advantages, methods to improve the tolerance of OPs with incremented HMs uptake, challenges in the field, and future application perspectives. The case studies realted to practical application of OPs, from China, Iran, India, Oman, Pakistan, and Turkey, were also discussed. This work fetches the inter-disciplinary features and understanding for the sustainable treatment of HMs in a new novel way, to which no previous review has focused.

Keywords: Heavy metals; Horticulture; Ornamental plants; Phytoremediation; Plant toxicity.