African Journal of
Environmental Science and Technology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0786
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJEST
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 1126

Full Length Research Paper

Performance of Solanum incunum Linnaeus as natural coagulant and disinfectant for drinking water

  C. Kihampa*, W. J. S. Mwegoha, M. E. Kaseva and N. Marobhe  
School of Environmental Science and Technology, Ardhi University, P. O. Box 35176, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 01 September 2011
  •  Published: 31 October 2011

Abstract

 

      The paper reports the performance of Solanum incunum Linnaeus as coagulant and disinfectant for water purification. The coagulation-flocculation experiment was carried out using a Phipps and Bird PB- 700TM Jar Tester. Results show that coagulation depends on Fe(II) content and disinfectant on bioactive natural product compounds from the plant. Turbidity removals were 96, 97 and 75% for raw water with turbidity of 450, 300 and 105 NTU, respectively. Fecal coliform removal increased with coagulant concentration, displayed a maximum removal of 99% at 2.2 × 10-4 g/ml. LD50 ranged from 0.62-2.6 × 10-5 g/ml, which were within the range of optimum coagulation concentration of 2.2 × 10-5 g/ml. Turbidity and SO42- concentrations for the treated water conforms to the Tanzanian Standards and WHO guidelines for drinking water, while fecal coliform counts exceeded the recommended values. The results suggest that S. incunum is promising as coagulant and disinfectant product for water purification.

 

Key words: Coagulant, disinfection, fecal coliform, Solanum, turbidity, water.

Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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