Phytoremediation of Pharmaceutical Mixtures Using Chrysopogon Zizanioides: A Sustainable Alternative for Removing Emerging Contaminants from Wastewater

Pharmaceutical products are emerging contaminants frequently found in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and, even at deficient concentrations, can potentially cause adverse effects on humans, flora, and fauna. In this context, this research work focused on testing the pharmaceutical removal capacity of Chrysopogon zizanioides in aqueous medium for various pharmaceutical mixtures containing highly prescribed medicines worldwide. In the mix of the five studied drugs, Chrysopogon zizanioides removed 98.32% of ciprofloxacin, 73.33% of both ibuprofen and diclofenac, 65.53% of sulfamethoxazole, and 38.49% of acetaminophen from the aqueous medium. Meanwhile, in the mixture of two of the most consumed antibiotics, sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin, Chrysopogon zizanioides showed a high percentage of removal for these two drugs, ranging from 90.7% to 99.9%, respectively. These results demonstrate that Chrysopogon zizanioides exhibited high efficiency in removing the studied pharmaceutical mixtures, significantly contributing to the sustainable treatment of wastewater contaminated with pharmaceutical products.