Using plants to remediate or manage metal-polluted soils: an overview on the current state of phytotechnologies

Soil contamination by metals threatens both the environment and human health hence requires remedial actions. The conventional approach of removing polluted soils replacing them with clean (excavation) is very costly for low-value sites not feasible on a large scale. In this scenario, phytoremediation emerged as promising cost-effective environmentally-friendly technology to render less bioavailable (phytostabilization) or up metal-polluted (phytoextraction). Phytostabilization has demonstrable successes in mining brownfields. On other hand, phytoextraction still few examples successful applications. Either using hyperaccumulating plants high biomass induced accumulate through chelator addition soil, major bottlenecks remain, mainly extended time frame remediation lack revenue from land during process. Due these drawbacks, phytomanagement been proposed provide economic, environmental, social benefits until contaminated site returns productive usage. Here, we review evolution, promises, limitations phytotechnologies. Despite commercial operations, there have significant advances understanding phytotechnologies' main constraints. Further investigation new plant species, especially tropics, soil amendments can potentially basis transform into an operational metal clean-up future. However, at current state art, phytotechnology moving focus technologies pollution attenuation palliative cares.