ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the relevant aspects concerning Organic Micropollutants interactions (OMP) with aquatic macrophytes as the former are taken up by the latter in constructed wetlands systems employed for wastewater treatment. It gives the main factors affecting the extent and rate of uptake of OMPs by plants and their subsequent translocation to different plant parts. The chapter describes the various metabolic stages enacted by plants to transform the pollutants into a form that is less toxic and that can possibly remain in plant tissues without compromising their survival. In the processes of detoxification and response against oxidative stress, phenolic compounds, which are ubiquitous secondary metabolites in plants, may have an important role both in enzymatic as well as non-enzymatic mechanisms. Plants exposure to xenobiotics, therefore, will create stress conditions that are responsible for the activation of such defense mechanisms.
