Pharmaceutical Compounds: An Emerging Pollutant (A Review on Plant-pharmaceuticals Interaction)

Abstract

Pharmaceutical compounds enter the environment through multiple pathways: they are flushed down the toilet, passed unmetabolized through human excretion, rinsed off during showers and discharged directly from manufacturers. Recent studies have shown that these pharmaceutical cause serious problems to animals who consumed it through contaminated water. Due to extensive use of pharmaceuticals in our life its presence in our ecosystem is obvious still we do not know much about its impact on plants. Several studies have been performed to report the accumulation of pharmaceuticals in plants, but only a limited amount of work has been performed towards the toxic effect of these compounds on plants. The aim of this review is to overview experimental evidence of plant-pharmaceuticals interaction, their uptake and their removal by plants and to suggest an open area of research in this new field.