Comprehensive evaluation of enrofloxacin removal and toxicokinetic dynamics in Typha latifolia L.: Uptake, bioaccumulation, elimination, biotransformation, and plant responses.
Franco MDR, Truchet DM, Okada E, Menone ML, Medici SK
Phytoremediation
Waterways near farms — and the parks, wetlands, and drinking water sources downstream — are quietly accumulating antibiotics from livestock operations, and this research shows that simply planting cattails in constructed wetlands could clean up most of that contamination naturally.
Scientists tested whether cattails — those tall, brown-topped marsh plants — could clean antibiotic-laced water the way it flows out of animal farms. The cattails soaked up about 90% of the antibiotic over 35 days and even chemically converted it into a related compound, all without showing signs of stress or damage. This is good news for using natural wetland plants as low-cost, living water filters near agricultural areas.
Key Findings
Cattails removed approximately 90% of enrofloxacin from water, following predictable first-order removal kinetics across environmentally relevant concentrations of 10 and 100 μg/L.
Plants biotransformed enrofloxacin into ciprofloxacin — a related antibiotic — marking the first time this conversion pathway and its kinetic model have been characterized in Typha latifolia.
Despite 35 days of antibiotic exposure, cattails showed no significant toxicity; they actually displayed a mild growth-stimulating (hormetic) effect on roots and increased photosynthetic pigment levels.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Cattails (Typha latifolia) can remove roughly 90% of the veterinary antibiotic enrofloxacin from water, and researchers have now mapped out exactly how the plant absorbs, stores, and breaks it down — including converting it into a second antibiotic, ciprofloxacin.
Abstract Preview
Animal feeding operation effluents are major sources of veterinary antibiotics in freshwaters. Enrofloxacin (ENRO) is an emerging contaminant of increasing environmental concern. Phytoremediation u...
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Typha is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English bulrush or reedmace, in American English cattail or punks, in Australia cumbungi or bulrush, in Canada bulrush or cattail, and in New ...