Pharmaceutical-contaminated irrigation water: implications for ornamental plant production and phytoremediation using enrofloxacin-accumulating species

Abstract

Enro oxacin (Enro) has been widely encountered in natural water sources, and that water is often used for irrigation in crop production systems. Due to its phytotoxicity and accumulation in plant tissues, the presence of Enro in water used for crop irrigation may represent economical and toxicological concerns.Here, we irrigated two ornamental plant species (Zantedeschia rehmannii and Spathiphyllum wallisii) with water arti cially contaminated with the antimicrobial enro oxacin (Enro; 0, 5, 10, 100 and 1000 µg L − 1 ) to evaluate its effects on ornamental plant production, as well as its accumulation and distribution among different plant organs (roots, leaves, bulbs, and ower stems), and examined the economic and environmental safety of commercializing plants produced under conditions of pharmaceutical contamination. The presence of Enro in irrigation water was not found to disrupt plant growth (biomass) or ower production. Both species accumulated Enro, with its internal concentrations distributed as following: roots > leaves > bulbs > ower stems. In addition to plant tolerance, the content of Enro in plant organs indicated that both Z. rehmannii and S. wallisii could be safety produced under Enrocontaminated conditions and would not signi cantly contribute to contaminant transfer. The high capacity of those plants to accumulate Enro in their tissues, associated with their tolerance to it, indicates them for use in Enro-phytoremediation programs.