BIOREMEDIATION OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATED SITES BY MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS: PHYTOREMEDIATION BEHAVIOR, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES IN MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have brought environmental pollution. Pollution is even more significant in areas close to industrial areas. Among various organic and inorganic pollutants, heavy metal pollution poses a great threat to the current environment. Because heavy metals tend to stay in the environment for a long time. It takes a long time for them to disappear from nature as a result of chemical and microbial degradation. This feature increases the accumulation and this situation poses a great risk in terms of environment and animal health. Metal concentration above a certain threshold limit will have a toxic effect, thus reducing the quality of soil as well as agricultural products. Therefore, this problem should be handled in the best way and a sustainable environmentally friendly way for treatment should be followed. It is a worldwide popular and accepted method used for cleaning especially heavy metal-contaminated areas with medicinal and aromatic plants due to its sustainability, non-toxicity, not being included in the food chain because they are not preferred as food due to their essential odor, aesthetic, and natural appearance, environmentally friendly and applicable, accepted by the local people as an aesthetic and safe strategy, and being a low cost and natural method. Scientists dealing with medicinal and aromatic plants have shown interest in using these plants for phytoremediation purposes in polluted areas. For this reason, studies on this subject have been going on for a long time. In reality, it is used in the perfumery, fragrance, aromatherapy, etc. Such plants, which are of extreme economic importance in areas, are also an excellent choice for the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated areas. In this chapter, this subject will be examined in detail, and examples of work in this field will be given.