Phytoremediation is a developing technology that can potentially address the problems of contaminated
agricultural land or more intensely polluted areas affected by urban or industrial activities. Three main
strategies currently exist to phytoextract inorganic substances from soils using plants:(1) use of natural hyper
accumulators; (2) enhancement of element uptake of high biomass species by chemical additions to soil and
plants; and (3) phytovolatilization of elements, which often involves alteration of their chemical form within
the plant prior to volatilization to the atmosphere (McGrath et al. 2002).
Phytoremediation is a promising new method that uses green plants to assimilate or detoxify metals and
organic chemicals. The phytoremediation of metal-contaminated soils offers a low cost method for soil
remediation and some extracted metals may be recycled for value (Chaney et al. 1997). Plants that
accumulate metals to high concentrations are sometimes referred to as ‘‘hyperaccumulators’’ (Visoottiviseth
et al. 2002).