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Effectiveness of Moringa oleifera seed as coagulant
for water purification
Francis Kweku Amagloh* and Amos Benang
University for Development Studies,
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Applied Chemistry
and Biochemistry, P. O. Box 24, Navrongo, Ghana.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
francisamagloh@yahoo.com.
Accepted
19 January, 2009
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The high cost of treated water makes most people in the
rural communities to resort to readily available sources
which are normally of low quality exposing them to
waterborne diseases. It is in this light that this research
was carried out to confirm the effectiveness of powder
extracted from mature-dried Moringa oleifera seeds
which is commonly available in most rural communities of
Africa. This was done using Completely Randomised Design
with loading doses of 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 g/L of the
powder processed from Moringa seeds, and aluminium
sulphate (alum) as coagulant. A control (water from the pond
with only distilled water without alum and Moringa
treatments) was also included. The turbidity, pH, and
conductivity and total coliform were determined for all the
samples. The turbidity for the samples ranged from log100.30
to log101.36NTU while the conductivity ranged
from log102.29 to log102.72 µS/cm. The
12 g/L treatment of Moringa and 10 and 12 g/L alum
treatments gave values that are acceptable according to the
World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for safe drinking
water. The control sample gave the higher extremes values
which are unacceptable. The pH values (7.29 to 7.89)
obtained for the treatments were in the recommended range
set by WHO. The Most Probable Number per 100 ml for total
coliform counts had values from 2 to 17 at 95% confidence
limits. The Moringa treatment gave lower counts.
Findings of this research lend support to earlier works
recommending the use of Moringa for water treatment.
Key words:
Water, powder, Moringa, alum.
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