The Multifaceted Function of Water Hyacinth in Maintaining Environmental Sustainability and the Underlying Mechanisms: A Mini Review

Abstract

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) (WH) is a widespread aquatic plant. As a top invasive macrophyte, WH causes enormous economic and ecological losses. To control it, various physical, chemical and biological methods have been developed. However, multiple drawbacks of these methods limited their application. While being a noxious macrophyte, WH has great potential in many areas, such as phytoremediation, manufacture of value-added products, and so on. Resource utilization of WH has enormous benefits and therefore, is a sustainable strategy for its control. In accordance with the increasing urgency of maintaining environmental sustainability, this review concisely introduced up to date WH utilization specifically in pollution remediation and curbing the global warming crisis and discussed the underlying mechanisms.