Evaluation of eco-friendly coagulant from Trigonella foenum-graecum seed

Chitteti Ramamurthy, Malige Uma Maheswari, Natarajan Selvaganabathy, Muthuvel Suresh Kumar, Venugopal Sujatha, Chinnasamy Thirunavukkarasu

Centre for Advanced Studies in Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
Department of Chemistry, Periyar University, Salem, India.

DOI: 10.4236/abc.2012.21007                

Abstract

The ability of seed extracts of Trigonella foenum-graecum (T. foenum-graecum) and Cuminum cyminum (C. cyminum) to act as natural coagulants was tested using natural turbid water. Seed extracts were prepared using distilled water and NaCl (0.5 M and 1.0 M) solution. Only 1.0 M NaCl extract of T. foenum-graecum had coagulation capability and did not depend on pH values. Further it showed that natural coagulant obtained from T. foenum-graecum is temperature (upto 100?C) and pH stable (pH 4.0 - 10.0). Extract of C. cyminum had very minimal (16 ± 2) coagulation property. The seed extract of T. foenum-graecum showed about 80% coagulation properties, where as the best known natural coagulants such as Strychnos potatorum and Moringa oleifera, and chemical coagulant such as Al2(SO4)3 showed around 90%, 65% and 95% respectively, which are used as standards for the present study. When compared with pond water, T. foenum-graecum extract treated water shows decrease in alkalinity, turbidity, KMnO4 demand and total coli-form. This study reveals that seed extract of T. foenum-graecum can be used as natural water coagulant.

Keywords

Natural Coagulants; Water Purifier; T. foenum-graecum; Fenugreek

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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