Aptasensors in environmental forensics: Tracking the silent killers

Abstract Since its inception, environmental forensics has observed expansion of its horizons across several threats to life forms, be it pertaining to wildlife trafficking or tracking the release of effluents containing pharmaceutical drugs, toxins, pesticides, heavy metals, pathogenic microbes, and microplastics. With the substantial growth of pharmaceutical industry over the past few decades, especially with respect to therapeutic personal care products and over the counter drugs, a new threat to environment has emerged from pharmaceutical toxicity. Due to the recalcitrant nature and poor wastewater treatment practices related to these pollutants, they leach into different strata of ecosystem like aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems. These drugs pose a threat to several life forms even at trace concentrations. This article aims at providing a profound perspective by exhaustively reviewing several classes of pharmaceutical drugs that are silently threatening the wildlife and environment. The sensitive, specific, and rapid detection of such drugs menacing the environment and wildlife is pertinent and can be achieved through aptamer‐based biosensors known as aptasensors. These are a rising class of biosensors with vast application potential in numerous fields including environmental and wildlife forensics. This article also highlights the gap in research in the availability of rapid sensors for trace detection of drugs in environment hence encouraging researchers to explore the under‐explored potential of aptasensors in environmental forensics. Highly sensitive and selective detection of such drugs is crucial in narrowing down the origin of such pollutants so as to aid the regulatory authorities in enforcing control over their release into environment. This article is categorized under: Forensic Chemistry and Trace Evidence > Trace Evidence Forensic Chemistry and Trace Evidence > Forensic Food and Environment Analysis