Purifying water with Miracle tree seeds

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that around 1.1 billion people lack access to drinkable water sources. As a consequence of this lack of safe water and sanitation the occurrence of diarrhea cases multiply. Only in 1998 the WHO estimated the number of deaths caused by diarrhea in 2.2 million people, most of them under 5 years old [3].

In order to avoid this WHO recommended a series of key measure, the first and most important one being access to safe drinking water. Stephanie B. Velegol, Ph.D., a researcher at Pennsylvania State University seems to have find the way to do that in an inexpensive way, but how?

MORINGA OLEIFERA

Family: Moringaceae
Genus: Moringa
Common name: Miracle Tree, Horseradish-tree, Ben oil tree, Drumstick tree.

However purifying water inexpensively is not so easy to achieve, or at least it wasn't until now. Supplying safe drinking water in developing countries required until now big investments in water purification plants, chemical products and so on, rendering impossible its implementation in most cases.

But now, a new hope for those developing countries have arisen with the announcement of the findings of a research done by Stephanie B. Velegol, Ph.D., a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, using the Miracle tree (Moringa oleifera) seeds [4], commonly known as “The Miracle Tree,” “Horseradish-tree,” or “Ben oil tree”, to purify water in an inexpensive and sustainable way. Image left: Moringa oleifer.

THE PROJECT

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But how are they planning to do that? I mean, it seems pretty easy but how do Moringa oleifera seeds clear contaminated water? Well, the idea is quite simple, Moringa oleifera seeds contain a natural cotionic protein (MOCP) that can be used as an antimicrobial flocculant for water clarification, but its use released other organic matter that could render the purified water susceptible to get contaminated by other pathogens.

To prevent that the excess of organic matter is removed using sand granules, which in combination with the Moringa oleifera seeds form a functionalized sand, of f-sand, able to purify water from pathogens and bacteria as Escherichia coli [4].  Image: Moringa oleifera by Treesftf's under Creative Commons attribution license (CC BY 2.0).

WHERE CAN WE FIND MORINGA OLEIFERA?

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In spite Moringa oleifera is native to Western and sub-Himalayan tracts, India, Pakistan, Asia, and Africa [5,6], the plant can also be found in Philippines, Cambodia, America, and the Caribbean Islands [7].

OTHER USES OF MORINGA OLEIFERA

Most parts of Moringa oleifera have been consumed or used for various purposes as alley cropping, animal forage, biogas, domestic cleaning agent, blue dye, fertilizer, foliar nutrient, green manure, gum (from tree trunks), honey and sugar cane juice-clarifier (powdered seeds), ornamental plantings, biopesticide, pulp, rope, tannin for tanning hides, water purification, machine lubrication (oil), manufacture of perfume, and hair care products [2,8]. Image left: Moringa oleifera by Treesftf's under Creative Commons attribution license (CC BY 2.0).

The leaves of Moringa oleifera have been reported to be a valuable source of both macro- and micronutrients, rich source of β-carotene, protein, vitamin C, calcium, and potassium and act as a good source of natural antioxidants; and thus enhance the shelf-life of fat-containing foods [14,15,16].

REFERENCES

[1] Moringa oleifera picture (Top): Flickr picture by YIM Hafiz under Creative Commons attribution license (CC BY 2.0).

[2] Experimental Assessment of Moringa oleifera Leaf and Fruit for Its Antistress, Antioxidant, and Scavenging Potential Using In Vitro and In Vivo AssaysSuaib Luqman, * Suchita Srivastava, Ritesh Kumar, Anil Kumar Maurya, and Debabrata Chanda Molecular Bioprospection Department, Biotechnology Division, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Lucknow 226015, India.

[3] WHO, Water-related diseases

[4] Antimicrobial Sand via Adsorption of Cationic Moringa oleifera Protein.Jerri HA, Adolfsen KJ, McCullough LR, Velegol D, Velegol SB.Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University
Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.

[5] Somali MA, Bajneid MA, Al-Fhaimani SS. Chemical composition and characteristics of Moringa peregrina seeds and seeds oil. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’Society. 1984;61(1):85–86.

[6] Mughal MHS, Ali G, Srivastava PS, Iqbal M. Improvement of drumstick (Moringa pterygosperma Gaertn.) A unique source of food and medicine through tissue culture.Hamdard Medicus. 1999;42:37–42.

[7] Palada MC. Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.): a versatile tree crop with horticultural potential in the subtropical United States. HortScience. 1996;31 
(5):794–797.

[8] Fuglie LJ. The Miracle Tree: Moringa oleifera: Natural Nutrition for the Tropics.
Dakar, Senegal: Church World Service; 1999.

[9] Effect of storage of shelled Moringa oleifera seeds from reaping time on turbidity removal. Golestanbagh M, Ahamad IS, Idris A, Yunus R. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 47200 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

[10] The medicinal qualities of Moringa oleifera. Posmontier B. College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102, USA.

[11] Control of coliform bacteria detected from diarrhea associated patients by extracts of Moringa oleifera. Rahman MM, Rahman MM, Akhter S, Jamal MA, Pandeya DR, Haque MA, Alam MF, Rahman A. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju 561-712, Republic of Korea.

[12] Moringa oleifera seeds picture (right): Flickr picture by treesftf underCreative Commons attribution license

[13] Plant names: Porcher Michel H. et al. 1995 - 2020, Sorting Theobroma Names. Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database - A Work in Progress. Published by The University of Melbourne. Australia. < http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au > .

[14] Experimental Assessment of Moringa oleifera Leaf and Fruit for Its Antistress, Antioxidant, and Scavenging Potential Using In Vitro and In Vivo Assays Suaib Luqman, * Suchita Srivastava, Ritesh Kumar, Anil Kumar Maurya, and Debabrata Chanda

[15] Dillard CJ, Bruce German J. Phytochemicals: nutraceuticals and human health. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 2000;80(12):1744–1756.

[16] Siddhuraju P, Becker K. Antioxidant properties of various solvent extracts of total phenolic constituents from three different agroclimatic origins of drumstick tree (Moringa oleifera Lam.) leaves. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2003;51(8):2144–2155.