Innovative Usage of Traditional Seeds for Drinking Water Purification

Today, the accelerated phase of development, rapid industrialization, and population density has increased the demand for water to a greater extent. The organic particles such as decomposed plant and animal matter or living biological organisms and inorganic particles contribute to turbidity in open water system. Water is said to be polluted if it has not been of sufficiently good quality, to be useful for everyone present or future. Ingram et al. [16]. Turbidity is a key feature which is used to determine the quality of drinking water. Synthetic turbid water with different NTUs was used as a standard. In the present study, jar test experiments were carried out with the aqueous extract of Trigonella foenum-graecum and Strychnos potatorum seeds so as to understand the efficiency of the seeds to reduce the turbidity of the water sample. Healthy seeds of Trigonella foenum-graecum and Strychnos potatorum were selected and powdered to check the reduction efficacy against synthetic turbid water. The synthetic turbid water was prepared using kaolin at different concentrations. The phytochemical constituents of powdered seeds were analyzed using FTIR, HPLC, and GC-MS. Both the seeds exhibited good in vitro antioxidant activity. The reduction efficiency was evaluated at varying NTUs, concentrations and duration. This study revealed a notable reduction of turbidity in both seed treatments. The Trigonella foenum-graecum seeds exhibited higher reduction potential than strychnos potatorum seeds. From the experiments, both the coagulants Trigonella foenum-graecum and Strychnos potatorum were found to be of greater efficiency to reduce the turbidity. Based on the study, it could be concluded that Trigonella foenum-graecum could be effectively used for the treatment of turbid water. However, further studies are being carried out for scientifically validating the results obtained.