Aromatic Plant-Based Phytoremediation: Socio-Economic and Agricultural Sustainability

By Valeria Ancona, Madhumita Roy, Dragana Ranđelović and Vimal Chandra Pandey

Nutraceutical Fruits and Foods for Neurodegenerative Disorders presents food-based strategies, specifically related to nutraceuticals, in delaying the onset and slowing down of the propensity of neuronal devastation. In addition to highlighting the positive effects of nutraceutical fruits and foods on brain health, the book also explores the medicinal properties of fruits, vegetables, berries and nutraceuticals, along with their contribution to environmental factors, potential hazards and the need for specific regulatory actions. This book will be a welcomed reference for nutrition researchers, dieticians, nutritionists and academicians studying related fields.

Users will find this book to be a solid foundation on which scientific knowledge in the field of aromatic crop-based phytoremediation can grow and expand. It will also be a good and instructive text with a format that is easy to grasp and read.

• Focuses on anthropogenic land pollution and management through aromatic crops
• Provides basic understanding and a clear picture on how to use aromatic grasses in phytoremediation with a goal toward sustainable development
• Explores the sustainability of aromatic crop cultivation in polluted land in phytoremediation programs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: Nov 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9780443153181

Valeria Ancona

Dr. Valeria Ancona graduated from the University of Bari with a degree in Agricultural Science and Technology in 2004. She earned her Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry from the same university in 2008. She was able to solidify her knowledge and abilities in soil and water remediation technologies because to the abundance of experience she gained throughout her Ph.D. phase. She has been working at the Waters Research Institute (IRSA-CNR) in Bari since 2008, focusing on plant-assisted bioremediation as an ecological approach to multi-contaminated site recovery. She combined microbial ecology techniques for evaluating the structure and composition of soil microbial communities with analytical techniques for the assessment of contaminants (organic and inorganic) in soil and biomass to study soil decontamination processes as a result of the synergistic action between plant species and soil microorganisms. More than 80 publications have been published in national and international scientific journals (ISI), conference proceedings, and technical reports because of her research.

Book preview

Utilization of polluted land through aromatic plants

Contents

1.1 Land pollution 1

1.2 A vision of how to utilize polluted lands 4

1.3 Phytoremediation strategies 7

1.4 Valuable plant-based phytoremediation 10

1.5 Aromatic plant-based phytoremediation 11

1.6 Phytoremediation strategies in aromatic plants 12

1.6.1 Geranium (family Geraniaceae) 25

1.6.2 Mint (family Lamiacaeace) 27

1.6.3 Basil (family Lamiacaeace) 27

1.6.4 Chamomille (family Asteraceae/Compositae) 28

1.6.5 Rosemary (family Lamiaceae) 29

1.6.6 Sage (family Lamiaceae) 29

1.6.7 Lavender (family Lamiaceae) 30

1.6.8 Rose (family Rosaceae) 30

1.6.9 Marigold (family Asteraceae/Compositae) 31

1.7 Conclusion and future prospects 31

References 33

1.1 Land pollution

The quick increase of human activities in industrial production and the abuse of synthetic compounds (e.g., pesticides and fertilizers) in agriculture, affected seriously world land favoring widely the onset of land degradation processes. The world population will rise above seven billion and will quickly arrive at eight billion. Population growth is destroying natural resources and causing assessable waste around the world. When contamination is governable, environmental matrices (soil, water, and air) can naturally water down, ruin, or absorb the contaminants. The growing pollution load needs to develop further strategies to avoid its dangerous effects (Kjellstrom et al., 2006).

Widespread industrialization and urbanization represent the major contributors to the constant degeneration of environmental quality. The discharge of contaminants in natural resources has been considerable in the last decades causing environmental and health concerns and only some of them efficiently remediated. Plants can describe the hazardous impacts of contamination and toxicity on ecosystems (Sandermann, 1994). Worldwide numerous sites result contaminated by anthropogenic and natural sources. For instance, heavy metal pollution in the environment may be caused by both natural sources (viz, volcanic activity, soil erosion, and alteration of minerals) and anthropogenic sources (i.e., tanneries, mining, smelting, red mud deposits, textile industries, iron industries, steel industries, synthesis of fertilizers, and pesticides, biosolid compounds in agriculture, industrial sludge discharges, fly ash disposals, etc.) (Pandey and Singh, 2012; Pandey et al., 2019).

Given the large assortment of landfills (waste from coal mines, red mud, fly ash, asbestos, and chromite), as well as other landfills (Fig. 1.1), there is a need to develop rehabilitation strategies all over the world. As observed by Bryan et al. (2012) and Pandey et al. (2009) these uncontrolled and often illegal landfills have repercussions on the organisms’ health in adjacent areas and can negatively alter the social and environmental scenery. The main problem of landfill risks is the occurrence of high concentrations of hazardous elements (e.g., Hg, Pb, As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Se, and Cr). Moreover, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organic contaminants, can be retrieved in waste dumps or land immediately adjacent to industrial sites e.g., Matra site (an Engineering industry, industrial zone of State, Southern Italy) (Ancona et al., 2019). These waste dumpsites can be favoring pollution of natural resources (soil, water, and air) which can harm human health, provoking several types of pathologies. As evidenced by USEPA (2007) this kind of contamination can favor the onset of serious diseases (cardiac, dermatological, oncological, genetic) in the population. Consequently, the recovery and rehabilitation of contaminated lands and waste deposits is a crucial point and has a deferrable urgency in the priorities of land management for the present and the future.

Figure 1.1 Different industrial sites (A) Veliki Krivelj copper mine pit and mine wastes, Serbia; (B) environmental hot-spot—copper mining industry and the urban panorama of Bor, Serbia; (C) flotation mine tailings spill on the banks of Timok river, Serbia—still bare several decades after the accident; (D) active coal mining pit in Kostolac, Serbia; (E) lignite mine overburden dumps in Kostolac, Serbia; (F) fly ash dump in Kostolac, Serbia; (G) Rudnik flotation tailings; and (H) abandoned asbestos mining site Korlace, Serbia. Photo courtesy: (A), (B), (C), (D), and (H) Dr. Dragana Randjelović; photo courtesy: (E), (F), and (G) Dr. Gordana Gajić

Numerous difficulties arise such as human sicknesses, a decrease in biodiversity, a decline in natural resources, and a reduction of soil fertility due to soil contamination. Several remediation technologies have been tested and applied to recover contaminated lands. Among these, the physicochemical methods are not efficient in terms of economic and ecological aspects. On the contrary, phytotechnologies for rehabilitating polluted areas have been considered more sustainable and eco-friendly strategies. Recently, there has been a rising increase in phytoremediation research and applications to address environmental pollution problems by adopting interdisciplinary approaches worldwide (Pandey et al., 2019). Moreover, plant species employed for phytoremediation purposes can be recycled in a sustainable mode, in compliance with the circular economy principles (Ancona et al., 2021). Recently, a lot of focus has been given to aromatic plants, whose aroma is characterized by volatile aromatic compounds. Such plant species are of great market interest due to their employment in producing perfumes, cosmetics, insect repellents, personal hygiene products, culinary compounds, and food manipulation. Generally, aromatic plants are unsavory and liberal to a variety of stressful situations. Hence, the utilization of polluted land through aromatic plants presents a promising approach to address the challenges associated with contaminated environments. The cultivation of aromatic plants on polluted land not only helps in the remediation process but also offers additional benefits such as economic opportunities through the production of essential oils, herbs, or botanical extracts. Moreover, the presence of these aromatic plants can contribute to improving air quality and creating a pleasant and visually appealing environment. Overall, the utilization of polluted land through aromatic plants represents a sustainable and nature-based solution that not only restores the health of the land but also harnesses the potential of these plants for various beneficial purposes. This chapter illustrates the potential benefits of using aromatic plants in phytoremediation, as well as the value of cultivating aromatic crops on polluted lands.

1.2 A vision of how to utilize polluted lands

The occurrence of contaminated lands is a severe problem for both human and environmental health. However, this is no longer a problem because of phytoremediation technologies, which make it possible to achieve the essential economic and environmental advantages, it is possible to consider polluted areas as resources to develop innovative and sustainable value chains, able to remediate soil degradation processes and provide new market opportunities. Considering this, phytoremediation can be considered a suitable strategy to implement the necessary actions to pursue the aims of the European Green Deal published in 2019. This Communication of the EU Parliament provides a roadmap for making the sustainable economy of EU countries by changing climate and environmental challenges into new opportunities. The EU Green Deal intends to promote the productive employment of resources by restoring biodiversity; shifting to a circular economy; halting climate change; loss and reducing contamination. It also outlines an action plan that explains the financial resources required, the funding options available, and how to achieve an equitable and inclusive transformation (COM, 2019, 640 final).

Recently, an important European fund, known as Just Transition Fund (JTF), has gained attention because it could be useful to perform important strategies to environmentally and socially rehabilitate specific degraded territories of European Countries. It is the first pillar of the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM). It will be a crucial economic instrument to help the lands most impacted by the transition toward climate neutrality by giving them customized assistance.

The fund will mitigate the socio-economic costs activated by climate transition, sustaining the economic variance and transformation of the involved lands. Several actions will be implemented to support investments in small and medium-sized enterprises, to stimulate the generation of new enterprises, environmental remediation, research and innovation, clean energy, updating and retraining of employees, as well as active inclusion programs for job seekers, and the conversion of existing carbon-intensive facilities where these investments result in significant emission reductions. It is foreseen to provide about €30 billion for funding.

In Annex D of the Country Report published as part of the 2020 European Semester, the European Commission identified the most severely affected sites by the conversion to a climate-neutral economy in each Member State. For Italy, the areas of the Province of Taranto and Sulcis-Iglesiente have been indicated. The investments of the JTF for Italy are therefore concentrated in these two areas of the country through the implementation of a national JTF program whose management authority is in the hands of the agency for territorial cohesion. For each area, the relative territorial plans are defined, envisaged by Art. 11 of EU regulation 2021/1056, designed in line with the Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate (PNIEC), which defines the Italian guidelines for decarbonizing the economy and achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

To define the territorial plans, in 2021 the European Commission launched a process of close dialogue with the stakeholders, led by the Department for Cohesion Policies and by the Agency for Territorial Cohesion, aimed at identifying the logic of intervention and bringing out any coherent projects already present in the territories. The negotiations with the European Commission took place in 2022 and, after sending an initial proposal sent on June 20, it reached a conclusion with Decision C(2022) 9764 of December 16, 2022, approving the national program and the two territorial plans.

The territorial plans, conceived with strong coherence and synergy with the regional programs financed by the European Social Fund Plus ESF & funds, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and with other territorial programs (e.g., Piano Sulcis, CIS Taranto), contain a report of the transition process at the national level, an assessment of the challenges to be addressed and the related economic, environmental and social effects and a description of the types of intervention to be financed.

Specifically, the identified challenges are focused on three main areas:

• Energy and environment

• Economic diversification

• Social and occupational effects

In line with the indications of Annex D of the Italian Country Report published regarding the 2020 European Semester, the JTF will intervene in the Province of Taranto (29 Municipalities for an area of approximately 2500 km², with 563,995 inhabitants (data January 2020) (Fig. 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Scheme of just transition fund (JTF) interventions on Taranto site, Italy.

The project that will be carried out in the Taranto site provides for the development of Green Supply Chains for Ecological Transition and Climate Neutrality. Among the plant species that could be selected for this project, there are aromatic plants that could contribute efficiently to restoring the degraded selected areas and at the same time will allow the activating of productive value chains.

Taking into account the indications provided by EU Green Deal Communication it is possible to hypothesize a conceptual scheme elucidating how the phytomanagement of polluted areas or waste dumpsites by applying phytoremediation techniques and subsequent biomass energy treatments allows to meet/address the current and crucial environmental and social challenges such as land contamination, climate changes, and circular economy (Fig. 1.3).

Figure 1.3 A conceptual scheme is shown to elucidate phytomanagement coherence with EU Green Deal indications and Agenda 2030.

By using the phytoremediation technique, it is possible to implement actions aimed at ecological transition, achieving some important Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presented in the Agenda 2030. Phytomanagement has great potential to rehabilitate degraded areas (landfills and contaminated sites) by sustainably reducing pollution, preserving and restoring ecosystem biodiversity, and providing biomass that can be usefully treated for generating various value-added products (Ancona et al., 2017, 2019, 2020; Gallucci et al., 2022a, b).

1.3 Phytoremediation strategies

Phytoremediation is a sustainable technique that utilizes various plants for recovering environmental matrices from the pollution of organic and inorganic toxic compounds. Through different mechanisms, phytoremediation promotes contaminant degradation, removal, accumulation/dissipation, or containment. Plants can be selected for remediation purposes based on the type of contaminant, geo-climatological conditions, and the environmental matrix (soil, water, air). The main strategies of phytoremediation acts are briefly illustrated as follows.

Phytoextraction (phytoaccumulation): Metals extracted from soil/water via the roots and then are distributed in the epigean part of the plant. The final disposal of accumulated metals can be then carried out by gathering the aerial parts or collecting the collapsed leaves of plants (Yan et al., 2021). High metal tolerance of plant tissues is necessary for achieving efficient phytoextraction. Plant tolerance can be obtained by accumulating metals in the cells and transporting them into the vacuoles, and then to aerial parts. The improvement of phytoextraction ability can be achieved by applying chelating agents such as ethylenediamine-N,N′-disuccinic acid (EDDS), 2,2′,2′′,2′′′-(ethane-1,2-diyldinitrilo)tetraacetic acid (EDTA), or citric acids (Král'ová and Jampílek, 2022).

Phytovolatilization: Soil contaminants removed by roots are relocated to the leaves and expelled into the air in a less volatile harmful form via phytotranspiration (Kumar et al., 2017; Khalid et al., 2017). This mechanism is appropriate for organic contaminants, and for the elimination of harmful elements such as Hg, Se, and As through their release into air (Wang et al., 2021). The utilization of genetic engineering along with phytoremediation is capable to convert efficiently metals into less toxic volatilized forms (Khalid et al., 2017).

Phytodegradation: Organic contaminants that plants acquire are broken down by metabolic mechanisms in plant tissues. The process of degradation can be accelerated by plant enzymes that catalyze the phytotransformation of contaminants by implanting functional groups. After conjugation with plant biomolecules, which results in a further increase in polarity, the toxicity of the contaminants is reduced, and the degradation process is complete (Mahar et al., 2016). This mechanism is also recognized as