Mechanism of Phytoremediation: Study of uptake and Metabolism of Methyl Parathion and p-Nitrophenol in Maize

Phytoremediation is a green technology, where plants are used to remove contaminants (organic or inorganic) from soil. This is the first report of using an indigenous plant for the purpose of phytoremediation. Maize, a crop plant has been used for this purpose where uptake of methyl parathion by the plant has been shown to occur 80%. Average uptake of p-nitrophenol is 64%. Streptomycin behaves like organic matter and affects the enzyme p-nitrophenol 4-hydroxylase both in the ischolar_main and shoot. The enzyme has been demonstrated to occur in a plant for the first time. Influence of soil organisms is both positive and negative in the uptake of organophosphate. The results obtained were confirmed by HPLC. Methyl parathion hydrolyses to p-nitrophenol, which is further metabolized to hydroquinone with nitrite release. Maize showed an uptake of 31.29% of methyl parathion in unsterilized soil. In the presence of streptomycin and in unsterilized soil uptake of hydroquinone is 99.78% and 98.36% respectively, while in sterilized soil there was no degradation.