Harnessing nature's green filter

With the rising population, growing urbanization, and rapid industrialization, air pollution is increasing alarmingly. This has become a global health crisis with no relief in the foreseeable future. Traditional air purification technologies primarily target pollutant reduction at the source and can be costly, energy-intensive, and may even produce secondary pollutants. To overcome these challenges, phytoremediation emerges as a sustainable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly solution that uses living plants to remove or neutralize airborne pollutants. Due to their vast biologically active surface area, plants can efficiently eliminate air contaminants through gaseous exchange or mechanical screening. This chapter presents a comprehensive synthesis of phytoremediation strategies for atmospheric pollutants, focusing on plant-based uptake, transformation, and sequestration of contaminants, as well as their species-specific efficiency and environmental influences. It also explores the susceptibility of plants against air pollution, the potential use of plants as biosensors, and their real-life applications. Notably, phytoremediation techniques have been found to be 5–13 times less expensive, more effective, broadly accepted, and more environmentally friendly than conventional remediation methods. The key contribution of this paper lies in critically analyzing experimental findings to assess species-specific pollution removal capacities and detoxification pathways, offering an integrated perspective on their practical implementation. Recent biotechnological advances and existing research gaps are also highlighted to support future developments in sustainable air quality management.