Use of macrophytes to reduce the contamination of water resources by pesticides

[Display omitted] •Ability of macrophytes to reduce clomazone residues in water was evaluated.•P. stratiotes showed higher sensitivity to clomazone than the E. crassipes.•E. crassipes and P. stratiotes reduced in 90 and 99% the clomazone waste in water.•The species P. stratiotes did not accumulate clomazone in its plant tissues. The importance of intensive agricultural activity in providing food for man is evident. However, criticism about the negative impacts of this practice on the environment has raised a discussion about the sustainability of these food production systems. Among these impacts, the contamination of water resources has been recurrent in areas near agricultural fields. To mitigate water contamination by herbicides, we evaluated the ability of macrophytes Pistia stratiotes and Eichhornia crassipes to reduce clomazone residues in water. The presence of clomazone caused intoxication on both species of macrophytes. P. stratiotes showed higher sensitivity to clomazone than the E. crassipes. Both species reduced the concentration of clomazone in water, with reduction of 90 and 99,9% for E. crassipes and P. stratiotes respectively. The species P. stratiotes did not accumulate clomazone in its plant tissues. However, in E. crassipes, 3.61 mg/plant of clomazone was detected in their tissues. Despite the promising results for two species of macrophytes studied here, P. Stratiotes presents an advantage compared to E. crassipes due to higher dissipation capacity without accumulating clomazone residues in their tissues.