Land, surface waters, and ground water worldwide, are increasingly affected by contaminations from industrial, research experiments, military, and agricultural activities either due to ignorance, lack of vision, carelessness, or high cost of waste disposal and treatment. The rapid build-up of toxic pollutants (metals, radionuclide, and organic contaminants in soil, surface water, and ground water) not only affects natural resources, but also causes major strains on ecosystems. Interest in phytoremediation as a method to solve environmental contamination has been growing rapidly in recent years. This green technology that involved "tolerant plants" has been utilized to clean up soil and ground water from heavy metals and other toxic organic compounds. Phytoremediation involves growing plants in a contaminated matrix to remove environmental contaminants by facilitating sequestration and/or degradation (detoxification) of the pollutants. Plants are unique organisms equipped with remarkable metabolic and absorption capabilities, as well as transport systems that can take up nutrients or contaminants selectively from the growth matrix, soil or water. As extensive as these benefits are, the costs of using plants along with other concerns like climatic restrictions that may limit growing of plants and slow speed in comparison with conventional methods (i.e., physical and chemical treatment) for bioremediation must be considered carefully. While the benefits of using phytoremediation to restore balance to a stressed environment seem to far outweigh the cost, the largest barrier to the advancement of phytoremediation could be the public opposition. The long-term implication of green plant technology in removing or sequestering environmental contaminations must be addressed thoroughly. As with all new technology, it is important to proceed with caution.Keywords: Phytoremediation; Green Technology; Pollutants; Contaminants; Toxic Metals Green TechnologyThe success of green technology in phytoremediation, in general, is dependent upon several factors. First, plants must produce sufficient biomass while accumulating high concentrations of metal. In some cases, an increased biomass will lower the total concentration of the metal in the plant tissue, but allows for a larger amount of metal to be accumulated overall. Second, the metal-accumulating plants need to be responsive to agricultural practices that allow repeated planting and harvesting of the metalrich tissues. Thus, it is preferable to have the metal accumulated in the shoots as opposed to the roots, for metal in the shoot can be cut from the plant and removed. This is manageable on a small scale, but impractical on a large scale. If the metals are concentrated in the roots, the entire plant needs to be removed. Yet, the necessity of full plant removal not only increases the costs of phytoremediation, due to the need for additional labor and plantings, but also increases the time it takes for the new plants to establish themselves in the environment and begin ...

High levels of Pb in localized areas are still a concern especially in urban areas with high levels of traffic, near Pb smelters, battery plants, or industrial facilities that burn fuel ending up in water and soils. The grasses used in the study, and particularly vetivergrass, can be used to phytoremediate urban soil with various contaminations by planting these grasses in lawns and public parks.

It is recommended that a more detailed and complete investigation of the phytoremediation properties of the different plants tested should be conducted in actual field experiments. Plants should be exposed until they reach maturity to establish their maximum response to the toxicity and mutagenecity of EtBr and their maximum absorbing capabilities. Different plant parts should be analyzed individually to determine the movement and translocation of EtBr from soil to the tissues of plants. Since this study has established that some plants can thrive and dwell in EtBr-treated soil, an increased amount of EtBr application should be explored in future studies. It is suggested therefore that a larger, more comprehensive exploration of phytoremediation application in the management of toxic and hazardous wastes emanating from biotechnology research activities should be considered especially on the use of vetivergrass, a very promising tropical perennial grass.

Purpose Environmentally hazardous and health risk substances in animals and humans in the environment have increased as a result of continuing anthropogenic activities. Examples of these activities are food processing, laboratory, food production, industrial, and other relative activities that use various forms of acrylamide. All acrylamide in the environment are manmade. It is the building block for the polymer, polyacrylamide, which is considered to be a nontoxic additive. However, if the polymerization process is not perfect and complete, the polyacrylamide may still contain acrylamide which is toxic and may pose risks and hazards to the environment. Another form of acrylamide that may pose danger as well in the environment is the acrylamide monomer, which is also a very toxic organic substance that could affect the central nervous system of humans and is likely to be carcinogenic. Phytoremediation could be a tool to somehow absorb this neurotoxic agent and lessen the contamination in the soil. This technology could lessen the soil and water contamination by acrylamide thereby limiting the exposure of animals and humans. This study may also help solve the problem of disposing contaminated acrylamide waste materials. This study was conducted to achieve the following objectives: (1) to evaluate phytoremediation potentials of some selected tropical plants in acrylamide-contaminated soil, (2) to compare the performance of tropical plants in absorbing acrylamide through accumulation in their roots and shoots, and (3) to determine the outcome of acrylamide in the soil after treatment using the test plants with phytoremediation potentials. Materials and methods Soil was collected from 40 sampling points (2,000 g of soil per sampling points) in a halfhectare rice field in the Philippine Rice Research Institute, Central Experiment Station, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. This study used Mustard (Brassica juncea L.), petchay (Brassica chinensis L.), vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides L.), hog weeds (Portulaca oleracea L.), snake plant (Sanseviera trifasciata Prain), and common sword fern (Nephrolepsis cordifolia L.). These plants were selected to determine their capability of removing acrylamide residues from soil with unstable polyacrylamide gel. Analysis of acrylamide concentrations in soil and plant parts were done using a gas chromatograph equipped with flame ionization detector at the Training, Research and Development, Adamson University, Manila. This study was laid out using the completely randomized design with three replications. Data were analyzed with a one-way ANOVA using PROC GLM. Duncan's multiple range test (p≤0.05) was followed for the mean treatment separation and comparison.Results and discussion Among the plants tested, the highest concentration of acrylamide was absorbed by the whole plant of mustard (6,512.8 mg kg −1 ) compared with pechay (3,482.7 mg kg -1 ), fern (2,015.4 mg kg -1 ), hogweeds Responsible editor:(1,805.3 mg kg -1 ), vetiver grass (1,385.4 mg kg -1 ), and snake pl...

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