Assessment of the Antimicrobial Efficiency of Moringa oleifera Seed Extracts in the Treatment of Grey Water

Abstract

The antimicrobial efficiency of Moringa oleifera seed extracts in the treatment of grey water was investigated in this study. The Moringa oleifera seeds were collected, prepared and used to treat both filtered and unfiltered grey water at different concentrations. Physical parameters like Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Turbidity, Electrical conductivity (EC) and Total dissolved solids (TDS) of the raw, filtered and treated grey water samples were conducted. The result revealed 65.7%, 67.1% and 80.1% BOD removal for the 50mg/l, 100mg/l and 150mg/l Moringa treatment respectively. An average of 97.4% turbidity removal was achieved for the filtered grew water sample after treatment with 150mg/l of Moringa seed extract. For the Electrical conductivity, a 27.3% removal was achieved for the unfiltered sample while for the Total dissolved solids, a 91.52% removal was recorded for the filtered grew water sample using 150mg/l of seed extract. The analysis of the total coliforms and pH conducted showed that 50mg/l, 100mg/l and 150mg/l of Moringa oleifera seed extracts solution respectively achieved 68.33%, 85.00% and 97.50% removal for the filtered grey water with pH values of 6.37, Original Research Article British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 4(3): 558-567, 2014 559 5.88 and 5.83 respectively. It was calculated that the optimum dosage of Moringa seed powder required to maintain minimum crop pH requirement of (6.5) was 32.89mg/l (44.95%). It was concluded that the seed extract of Moringa oleifera acts as a natural coagulant, flocculent and absorbent for the treatment of grew water. The presence of indicator organisms shows that the water samples are faecally contaminated and is only safe for irrigation purposes after the treatment.