Addressing the environmental impacts of butachlor and the available remediation strategies: a systematic review

Butachlor, a chloroacetanilide herbicide, used extensively all over the world as pre-emergence control of unwanted weeds. As a consequence, concerns about its potential adverse effects on the ecosystem and toxicity have risen. Several techniques have been used or are being investigated for effective removal of butachlor from the contaminated sites. This review reports the various toxicological studies conducted so far on the butachlor and the removal technologies available for its decontamination for better understanding. A new insight was also proposed after critical analysis of the merits and demerits of the removal technologies elucidated in the literature. An attempt was made to summarize the currently available analytical techniques reported for determination of butachlor in the environmental samples.