240

Bioremediation for Sustainable Environmental Cleanup

14.2 Bibliographic Analysis

In this study, a total of 501 articles with keywords of phytoremediation, water hyacinth, Eichhornia

crassipes, heavy metals, bioremediation, industrial wastewater, etc., were searched on the Web of

Science. By using the VOS viewer software, the keywords were evaluated (Basu et al. 2021, Show

et al. 2022). The keyword co-occurrences outcomes were defined to be 15, and a network map was

constructed by using the most used keywords, and the results are depicted in Figure 14.1. The cluster

and the prevalence of the individual keyword were indicated by color and size, and the line between

the circles represents their interlinks. From this network mapping of the keywords, it can be said that

these articles are mainly focused on the following five clusters or aspects:

i. Phytoremediation of wastewater (red cluster).

ii. Different types of heavy metal accumulation by the plant systems (green cluster).

iii. Aquatic plants and their responses to heavy metal toxicity (blue cluster).

iv. Relation between aquatic macrophytes and the heavy metal pollutants (yellow cluster);

v. Mode of pollutant removal by water hyacinth (purple cluster).

Figure 14.1. Bibliographic analysis

These keywords-oriented text mining studies explored the exploitation of aquatic plants or

macrophytes as a phytoremediation agent for heavy metal contaminated wastewater resources, i.e.,

industrial wastewater. Therefore, interlinking these industrial pollutants and the WH can unearth a

novel sustainable phenomenon, where other aquatic macrophytes can be utilized for such integrated

sustainable practises (heavy metal and other organic pollutants removal or bioremediation).

14.3 Phytoremediation: A Green Technology for the Cleanup of Pollutants

Phytoremediation is an emerging and fast growing effective eco-friendly technology based on

aquatic, semiaquatic and terrestrial plants for the removal of pollutants (Dhir 2013) such as metals,

hydrocarbons, pesticides and chlorinated solvents (Fletcher et al. 2020, Xia et al. 2003). Plants

help to degrade, assimilate, metabolize, mineralize or detoxify different pollutants (Schnoor et al.

1995) from different sources like soil, sediment, aquatic medium and atmosphere (Dhir 2013).