Use of Moringa oleifera seed extracts to reduce helminth egg numbers and turbidity in irrigation water

Water from wastewater-polluted streams and dug-outs is the most commonly used water source for irrigation in urban farming in Ghana, but helminth parasite eggs in the water represent health risks when used for crop production. Conventional water treatment is expensive, requires advanced technology a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Water research (Oxford) Vol. 46; no. 11; pp. 3646 - 3656
Main Authors:	Sengupta, Mita E., Keraita, Bernard, Olsen, Annette, Boateng, Osei K., Thamsborg, Stig M., Pálsdóttir, Guðný R., Dalsgaard, Anders
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2012 Elsevier
Subjects:	Agricultural Irrigation - methods Animals Applied sciences Ascaris - drug effects Dose-Response Relationship, Drug Eggs Exact sciences and technology Filtration - methods Ghana Health Helminth eggs Helminths - drug effects Irrigation Low quality water treatment Moringa oleifera Parasite Egg Count Plant Extracts - pharmacology Pollution Reduction Sand Seeds Seeds - chemistry Trichuris - drug effects Turbidity Urban vegetable farming Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods Waste water Water - parasitology Water Purification - methods Water Quality Water treatment and pollution World Ghana Africa Moringa oleifera Low quality water treatment Helminth eggs Turbidity Urban vegetable farming Irrigation Water treatment Tropical zone Urban area Waste water Trophic chain Pollution Proxy Health and environment Flocculation reagent Agriculture Stream Industrialized country Public health oringa oleifera Filtration Edible species Parasite Tap water Suspended particle Correlation analysis Flocculation Surface water Water quality Health hazards Physicochemical purification Farming Environmental protection
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Summary:	Water from wastewater-polluted streams and dug-outs is the most commonly used water source for irrigation in urban farming in Ghana, but helminth parasite eggs in the water represent health risks when used for crop production. Conventional water treatment is expensive, requires advanced technology and often breaks down in less developed countries so low cost interventions are needed. Field and laboratory based trials were carried out in order to investigate the effect of the natural coagulant Moringa oleifera (MO) seed extracts in reducing helminh eggs and turbidity in irrigation water, turbid water, wastewater and tap water. In medium to high turbid water MO extracts were effective in reducing the number of helminth eggs by 94–99.5% to 1–2 eggs per litre and the turbidity to 7–11 NTU which is an 85–96% reduction. MO is readily available in many tropical countries and can be used by farmers to treat high turbid water for irrigation, however, additional improvements of water quality, e.g. by sand filtration, is suggested to meet the guideline value of ≤1 helminth egg per litre and a turbidity of ≤2 NTU as recommended by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for water intended for irrigation. A positive correlation was established between reduction in turbidity and helminth eggs in irrigation water, turbid water and wastewater treated with MO. This indicates that helminth eggs attach to suspended particles and/or flocs facilitated by MO in the water, and that turbidity and helminth eggs are reduced with the settling flocs. However, more experiments with water samples containing naturally occurring helminth eggs are needed to establish whether turbidity can be used as a proxy for helminth eggs. ► Helminth eggs in wastewater represent health risks when used for irrigation of crops. ► M. oleifera seed extracts are used for low technology water treatment. ► Seed extract proved effective in reducing helminth eggs and turbidity in water. ► Farmers can use seed extract for high turbid water treatment. ► To meet WHO guidelines additional improvements of water quality are suggested.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0043-1354 1879-2448
DOI:	10.1016/j.watres.2012.04.011