Brassinosteroids for phytoremediation application

Phytoremediation is a plant-based family of technologies for remediating and/or containing contamination. It has good public acceptance and is economical, compared to traditional and engineering technologies for soil treatment. Phytohormones have the specific ability to increase and support plant physiology, and are well-known and applied in horticulture, floriculture, fruit farming and other agricultural fields. The main processes of phytoremediation involve plant physiology within the plant and/or its immediate surroundings (rhizosphere); thus it can take advantage of any "assistants" that improve the efficiency of the physiological mechanisms that can make phytoremediation process more efficient. We can call "assisted phytoremediation by plant growth regulators" that phytoremediation aided by phyto-hormone treatment. Such treatment is harmless to the environment, practical and economically viable. Only recently a very few studies have revealed the possibility of applying phytohormones for phytoremediation purposes. Phytohormones in this context should increase plant resistance to stress, increase plant biomass production, increase plant metal uptake, and increase organic degradation. Brassinosteroids could enter into this class of phytohormone for "assisted phytoremediation by plant growth regulators". This may open a new research field, intriguing experts in both phytoremediation and phytohormones.