PHYTOREMEDIATION POTENTIAL OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS A BIOECONOMICAL APPROACH (HB 2024)

Environmental contamination of heavy metals is a major problem, threatening sustainable agricultural production and health of millions of people. The extensive distribution of heavy metals in soil and water makes it necessary to employ environment-friendly low-cost and sustainable approaches for the remediation of contaminated sites. Phytoremediation has been considered a viable approach to meet these demands; however, it must provide some economic gains too. The use of economically important medicinal and aromatic plants is helpful in restoration of metal-contaminated sites and also may provide economic gains to the farmers. The book brings about a critical overview of the prospects of utilizing medicinal and aromatic plants in phytoremediation, including their utility, economic benefits and human safety issues. The book will be a timely addition to the field and would act as landmark. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, doctoral and graduate students working in the area of environmental pollution and cleanup technologies. The students working in the field of metal(loid) stress and crop biofortification will also find this to be a useful read. The content of the book is presented in simple language and represented through beautiful and scientifically informative figures and tables.

Amit Kumar is currently working as a Research Associate at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute. He is also worked as a National Post-Doctoral Fellow in Department of Botany, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science (2015) from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr. Kumar is engaged in various aspects of metal/ metalloid phytoremediation, biochemical and molecular approaches with a special emphasis on reducing heavy metal accumulation. He is working on mitigation of arsenic in crop plants and green leafy vegetables with enhancing grain yield through biogenic nanoparticles and elemental based formulation for arsenic affected areas. He has published 36 research papers with total impact factor 146.72, H-index 23 and total citation 2320. He has also published many national and international book chapters and magazine articles. He has presented a paper in international conference at Gdansk, Poland in 2015. He is life member of several societies as well as non-governmental organizations. He has also served as a reviewer for various national and international journals. He has been conferred several Awards for his contribution, including Protsahan Award-2021; Awsar Award-2020 and Young Scientist Award-2018.

Kuldeep Bauddh is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, UP, India in 2014. Dr. Bauddh is currently engaged in teaching the thrust areas of environmental sciences like Environmental Pollution and Management, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Toxicology, Soil Science and Hazardous Waste Management. His main research areas are phytoremediation, restoration of contaminated sites, and slow release fertilizers. He has published three Books (Edited) two with Elsevier on ‘Phytomanagement of Polluted Sites’ and Phytorestoration of Abandoned Mining and Oil Drilling Sites (In press), three with Springer on ‘Ecological and Practical Applications for Sustainable Agriculture’ (In Press), ‘Phytoremediation Potential of Bioenergy Plants, and ‘Algae and Environmental Sustainability". He published 32 research papers in national and international journals, 22 book chapters and 6 popular articles in magazines. Dr. Bauddh is reviewer of Research Journals like Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Chemosphere, Ecological Engineering, International Journal of Phytoremediation, Acta Physiologiae Platarum, Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability and Environmental Sustainability.

Sudhakar Srivastava is presently working as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (IESD), Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Botany at the University of Lucknow. He also served as a Scientific Officer at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai from 2009 to 2014. He has more than seventeen years of research experience in the field of plant-metal interactions, with a major focus on arsenic stress responses in plants. He has published 75 research articles and 30 review and letter articles in high-impact international and national journals. He has also received several awards for his contributions, including a Young Scientist Award from the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad in 2011, Young Scientist Award from Uttar Pradesh Council of Science & Technology (UPCST) in 2013-2014, and Young Scientist Award from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) in 2015. Dr. Srivastava is also an Associate of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and a life member of several societies as well as non-governmental organizations and serves as an Associate Editor for two respected international journals: Acta Physiologiae Plantarum and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.