Phytoremediation of Selenium by Plants

Abstract

Selenium (Se) is a metalloid which found in natural environment having 4 valence types (Selenide 2-, Elemental Selenium 0, Selenite 4+ and Selenate 6+ (Wu et al., 2015). It is ubiquitous and its concentration depends upon the type of soil. In most soils its range is approximately 0.4 mg/kg while in seleniferous soils; it is present in high concentrations greater than 10 mg/kg. Those soils are Seleniferous which contains 0.5-100 ppm Se in them due to industrialization, mining industry, use of chemical fertilizers or irrigation in agriculture sector (Schiavon et al., 2011). The distribution of Se is site dependent due to various environmental
condition and parent material of soil (Zhu et al., 2009).