In the present study, all the tested pharmaceuticals (except caffeine) were efficiently removed from nutrient solution by S. validus throughout the exposure period. The elimination process Followe dfirst - order kinetics. Mass balance calculations showed that S. validus uptake alone accounted for a significant contribution (6-13% for the roots and 22-49% for the shoots) of the total loss of clofibric acid. On the other hand, for both naproxen and diclofenac, only a small per-centage (less than 5.0%) of the initial mass of pharmaceutical in solution was assimilated by the roots and shoots, implying that other pathways of loss (photodegradation and biodegradation) were more significant. Carbamazepine showed the highest uptake percentage (of the mass initially in solution) in the roots (7-19%), with a low percentage in the shoots (0.86-3.25%). The percentage for direct plant uptake and translocation (14-22%) was less than the total carbamazepine removal percentage from nutrient solu-tions (64-74%), implying that carbamazepine must have been transformed to other products of catabolism in plant tissue. Diclofenac showed the lowest uptake percentages for both roots (0.17-1.79%) and shoots (0.11-0.75%), most probably due to its high potential for photodegradation. The fraction of caffeine in the roots was limited to 0.2-4.4%, while shoot uptake percentage ranged from 12 to 62%, implying that this polar compound is not only assimilated by the roots, but also readily translocated inS. validus. No significant correlations (p>0.05) were found between the rate constants of depletion from solution or plant tissue levels of the pharmaceuticals and either logKowor logDow. Despite this, ridge regression indicated that logKow is the most significant parameter for predicting pharmaceutical concentrations in plant tissues and the potential for elimination from hydroponic culture. Our mesocosm studies provide important information on the extent andnatureof suchremoval inaquaticplant systems. Although at this time, no single plant or constructed wetland system could removal all pharmaceutical compounds in inflowing waters, our study has shown that for some compounds, a main rout of elimina-tion is through root uptake (and subsequent translocation) by the aquatic plant itself. Further research on the capability of a wider range of aquatic plants to assimilate pharmaceutical compounds is necessary in order to incorporate such knowledge into actual design criteria for removing emerging contaminants in treatment plants.