The increasing number of efluents discharged from the source of water (urban, industrial, agricultural etc.), is resulting in a higher concentration of heavy metals in the source. Heavy metals have a density of over 5g/cm3 to the metals. These are toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic and resistant in watery and non-aquatic environments and impact water and non-water bodies seriously by substituting the basic metals of the same function. The extraction from the wastewater can be done in numerous techniques for example using an ion replacement, membrane filtration, osmosis, etc. This study discusses the adverse effects of heavy metals on the human body, the benefits of biosorption over traditional approaches for removal of heavy metals, the different biosorbents used to extract heavy metals and concerning issues regarding its commercial use, offering a wider viewpoint for the diversity of biosorbents and utilization of biosorption technique. It is evident from the profound literature survey that pH, biosorbent particle size, contact time, initial metal ion concentration, presence of chelating ligands etc. are some factors that affect the rate and extent of biosorption.

Effluents from industries contain appreciable amount of metallic cations like zinc, copper, iron, manganese, lead and cadmium. Release of heavy metal without proper treatment poses a significant threat to public health because of its persistence biomagnifications and accumulation in food chain. To reduce metal pollution problems many processes have been developed for the treatment and disposal of metal containing wastes. Certain plants have the ability to accumulate heavy metals such as Pb, Cr, Cd and Zn. At present, phytoremediation of metals may be approaching commercialization. Hence, possibility can be explored to remove heavy metal load, present even in low concentration, in waste water of paper mill effluent soil by using Croton sparsiflorus.