Fig. 4

Flowchart of data extraction from literature. Four commodity crops suitable for phytoremediation in semi-arid environments were included in this analysis. Relevant peer-reviewed studies were collected through Google Scholar, ASU Library Search, and Scopus. Papers meeting any of the following exclusion criteria—lack of data access, non-English language, or absence of relevant data (i.e., papers without obtainable BCF values)—were excluded from the analysis. Data were extracted for 22 harmonized variables from the selected studies. Among these, some studies directly reported BCF values, while others required BCF values to be calculated based on provided information.