Removal of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and carbamazepine from wastewater using water-soluble protein extracted from Moringa stenopetala seeds

Abstract

This study focuses on developing a method for the effective removal of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ketoprofen, fenoprofen, diclofenac and ibuprofen) and carbamazepine from wastewater using water-soluble proteins, which were extracted from Moringa stenopetala seeds. The functional groups and the surface charge of water-soluble protein powder were evaluated using FTIR and Zetasizer Nano ZS. Different parameters that affect the removal of selected pharmaceuticals such as initial concentration, the amount of the removing material and pH were optimized. The optimized method was applied to real wastewater samples collected from a wastewater treatment plant. A 100% removal was observed for all analytes under optimum conditions (4 mg dose of water-soluble protein powder, 1 ppm concentration of mixture a NSAIDs and at pH 3) for a synthetic standard solution prepared in ultra-high purity water. A slight decrease in the removal efficiency for the NSAIDs (82–86%) was observed when the water-soluble protein was applied to real wastewater samples. Despite the slight drop, such levels are still higher than those achieved with most advanced technologies and comparable with others. The attractiveness of this approach is its efficiency, environmental friendliness and that it is cost effective. The results thus demonstrate the capacity of water-soluble protein of Moringa stenopetala seed as an effective and efficient material for the removal of pharmaceutical drugs from environmental waters.