Banana Peel Can Clean Contaminated Water

Brazilian Researchers have found that the often trashed peel of banana might just be the most effective method for treating impure water.

Researchers put minced banana peel into the water and found that they accumulated and bind traces of Lead and Copper found in river water. These two metals are the prime reason of contamination of river water and they appear in it as a result of disposal by industry into the water. The slightest content of these metals in water can result in water-born diseases and even damage liver, stomach and brain. And more worryingly, these are hard to detect when in minute amounts.

The surprise came when I found its extraction capacity, which is higher than other similar materials constructed under chemical reactions, such as modified silica, alumina and cellulose,” said Gustavo Castro, an analytical chemist at the Biosciences Institute at Botucatu, Brazil.

“All these materials are produced in the laboratory with the same objective — to remove metals from water,” he said. “However, they present high costs, and in their preparation, some toxic residues are produced.”

How They Did It ?

Researchers took samples of water with pre-determined levels of copper and lead in a flask, put minced peels of banana and then stirred it. After sometime, they took out the peels and measured the quantity of metal ions. What they found was that metal content had reduced a lot. This indicated that the metal content had been bound to banana peels.

The technique was successful even in treating water which directly received industrial waste. Industrial waste affected water has a very high pH. What was more interesting is that same peels could be effective for 10 cycles of treatments i.e they could be used for 10 times over and over.

The researchers’ next goal now is to check if the bananas in a different location are same effective as they had in their laboratory.