Remediation of heavy metal contaminated ecosystem: an overview on technology advancement

The issue of heavy metal pollution is very much concerned because of their toxicity for plant, animal and human beings and their lack of biodegradability. Excess concentrations of heavy metals have adverse effects on plant metabolic activities hence affect the food production, quantitatively and qualitatively. Heavy metal when reaches human tissues through various absorption pathways such as direct ingestion, dermal contact, diet through the soil–food chain, inhalation and oral intake may seriously affect their health. Therefore, several management practices are being applied to minimize metal toxicity by attenuating the availability of metal to the plants. Some of the traditional methods are either extremely costly or they are simply applied to isolate contaminated site. The biology-based technology like use of hypermetal accumulator plants occurring naturally or created by transgenic technology, in recent years draws great attention to remediate heavy metal contamination. Recently, applications of nanoparticle for metal remediation are also attracting great research interest due to their exceptional adsorption and mechanical properties and unique electrical property, highly chemical stability, and large specific surface area. Thus, the present review deals with different management approaches to reduce level of metal contamination in soil and finally to the food chain.