Waterborne disease has a chance to be combated with a new low-cost water purification technique recently outlined in Current Protocols in Microbiology. By using seeds from the Moringa oleifera tree, 90.00% to 99.99% of bacteria can be reduced. Asia, Latin America and Africa all are subject to untreated surface water for their daily needs. As a result, about two million are estimated to die from contracted diseases every year.

Michael Lea, a Current Protocols author, and a researcher at Clearinghouse, a Canadian organization dedicated to investigating and implementing low-cost water purification technologies, believes the Moringa oleifera tree could be the solution we need.

“Moringa oleifera is a vegetable tree which is grown in Africa, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, and South East Asia. It could be considered to be one of the world’s most useful trees,” Lea explained. “Not only is it drought resistant, it also yields cooking and lighting oil, soil fertilizer, as well as highly nutritious food in the form of its pods, leaves, seeds and flowers. Perhaps most importantly, its seeds can be used to purify drinking water at virtually no cost.”

Moringa tree seeds can be crushed into a powder and then used as a clarifier for water. With the publication Lea hopes that this will draw interest in studying this area as a main water purifier.

Read the full article here.

Image courtesy of hendrycreekhideaway.com

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