ABSTRACT
Xenobiotics are compounds that are ‘stranger to life’, which imply that they are produced and introduced into the environment by human activities. Many of these compounds cannot be converted into less harmful chemicals in the environment in a reasonably short time. This means that they are either recalcitrant and difficult to metabolize, or that their partial oxidation products and metabolites may also be harmful in the environment. Therefore, their net concentration increases and their introduction into the environment propagates harm in biological species in ecosystem compartments.
