Potential of plant species for phytoremediation of metformin from solutions

Phytoremediation has been applied for treating an extensive range of environmental contaminants such as anti-diabetic drug metformin which is increasingly found as environmental contaminant. These contaminants are released to the environment via human and veterinary medicine and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, native plant capabilities for uptake of metformin from wastewater were investigated. Moreover, uptake rate of metformin was studied in two different concentrations of 20 and 50 mg l −1 metformin solution by Amaranthus retroflexus , Ricinus communis, Brassica napus, Celosia cristata , Helianthus annuus and Phragmites australis . The results showed that after exposing to 20 mg l −1 metformin solution 69.53 ± 2.25% of metformin was remediated by H. annuus plants. Also in 50 mg l −1 metformin solution, H. annuus plants showed the most remediation potential (65.7 ± 1%). Metformin uptake is raised by B. napus and C. cristata plants along with increasing metformin concentration. There was no evidence of the presence of metformin in the roots and shoots of R. communis and C. cristata . The results also indicated that plants such as H. annuus can be a potential candidate for uptake of metformin from wastewater.