Uptake and metabolism of diclofenac in Typha latifolia--how plants cope with human pharmaceutical pollution.

The fate of pharmaceuticals in our environment is a very important issue for environmental and health research. Although these substances have been detected in environmental compartments in low concentration until now, they will pose considerable environmental risk to ecosystems, animals and human due to their biological activity. Alternative plant based removal technologies that make use of some potential wetland species like Phragmites or Typha within traditional wastewater treatment plants have to be established to cope with this "new generation" of pollutants.

Metabolism of diclofenac in plants--hydroxylation is followed by glucose conjugation.

Pharmaceuticals from human or veterinary medication form a new class of micropollutants that poses a serious threat to our aquatic environment and its organisms. The intensively used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac is found in the environment worldwide due to its poor elimination during waste water treatment processes. In order to test phytoremediation as a tool for the removal of this drug from waste water, the uptake of the compound into plant tissues and its metabolic pathway was addressed using Hordeum vulgare (barley) and a hairy root cell culture of Armoracia rusticana (horse radish) as model species.

Enzymatic basis for fungicide removal by Elodea canadensis.

Purpose: Plants can absorb a diversity of natural and man-made toxic compounds for which they have developed diverse detoxification mechanisms. Plants are able to metabolize and detoxify a wide array of xenobiotics by oxidation, sugar conjugation, glutathione conjugation, and more complex reactions. In this study, detoxification mechanisms of dimethomorph, a fungicide currently found in aquatic media were investigated in Elodea canadensis.

Effects of acetaminophen in Brassica juncea L. Czern.: investigation of uptake, translocation, detoxification, and the induced defense pathways.

Purpose: Besides classical organic pollutants and pesticides, pharmaceuticals and their residues have nowadays become recognized as relevant environmental contaminants. The risks of these chemicals for aquatic ecosystems are well known, but information about the pharmaca-plant interactions and metabolic pathways is scarce. Therefore, we investigate the process of uptake of acetaminophen (N-Acetyl-4-aminophenol) by Brassica juncea, drug-induced defense responses and detoxification mechanisms in different plant parts.

Metabolism of acetaminophen (paracetamol) in plants--two independent pathways result in the formation of a glutathione and a glucose conjugate.

Background, Aim, And Scope: Pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are detected in the aquatic environment and our drinking water supplies. The need for high quality drinking water is one of the most challenging problems of our times, but still only little knowledge exists on the impact of these compounds on ecosystems, animals, and man. Biological waste water treatment in constructed wetlands is an effective and low-cost alternative, especially for the treatment of non-industrial, municipal waste water.

Osmotic stress- and indole-3-butyric acid-induced NO generation are partially distinct processes in root growth and development in Pisum sativum.

In this work, the effects of osmotic stress and exogenous auxin (indole-3-butyric acid, IBA) on root morphology and nitric oxide (NO) generation in roots were compared in pea plants. Five-day-old plants were treated with 0, 10(-3), 10(-4), 10(-5), 10(-6), 10(-7), 10(-8) or 10(-9) M IBA or with PEG 6000 at concentrations that determined 0, 50, 100, 200 or 400 mOsm in the medium, during 5 days. NO generation was examined by in situ and in vivo fluorescence method.

Exogenous auxin-induced NO synthesis is nitrate reductase-associated in Arabidopsis thaliana root primordia.

Nitric oxide (NO) functions in various physiological and developmental processes in plants. However, the source of this signaling molecule in the diversity of plant responses is not well understood. It is known that NO mediates auxin-induced adventitious and lateral root (LR) formation.