Integration of pharmaceuticals with higher plants as a model of phytoremediation

The presence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater, which are not eliminated in sewage treatment plant process and thus get easily into rivers and aquatic environment in general, constitutes a severe problem to the whole society. The research into the removal of pharmaceuticals from the environment began about twenty years ago. Phytoremediation represents one of the most promising wastewater treatment methods. It is based on the ability of plants to remove xenobiotics from their environment and sequester them, build them into their tissues or degrade them. Many plant species have been tested as potential phytoremediation agents including maize (Zea mays L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). These two plant species were also used for phytoremediation experiments described in this project. The sunflower BELEM variety and the maize G1 variety were cultivated in sterile media containing carbamazepine or its metabolite 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine. The same experiments were carried out with ibuprofen and acetaminophen for comparison. The antiepileptic drug carbamazepine belongs to the group of compounds, which are, due to their high stability, poorly degraded in the environment. Its metabolite 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine was synthesized by epoxidation of the double bond of carbamazepine using m-chlorperoxybenzoic acid..