Poor missing out on moringa seeds' water-purifying powers

Carol Campbell

24 March 2010 | EN

Moringa oleifera seeds can purify water

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[OUDTSHOORN] Seeds from a tree that grows widely across the developing world could play a key role in water purification — but there is lack of awareness about this application despite a long indigenous history, say researchers.

The Moringa tree — Moringa oleifera — is native to North India but is also found in Indonesia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and is used in many communities mostly for food and folk medicine.

But adding crushed Moringa seeds to water can cut the time taken for bacteria and solids to settle from a full day to just one hour, and has potential for preventing diarrhoea, according to Michael Lea of Clearinghouse, a Canadian organisation that investigates low-cost water purification technologies.

Lea has published a step-by-step procedure online that shows how the seeds can be crushed to produce a natural flocculant — a substance that aggregates suspended particles.

He hopes that making the technique freely available in this way will facilitate dissemination to those who need it the most — the role of the seeds in purification has been known for centuries but use has been limited.

Writing in Current Protocols in Microbiology, he said that the seeds can provide a low-cost, accessible purification method for poor communities where diarrhoea caused by water-borne bacteria is the biggest killer of children aged five and under.

Lea noted that the seeds "should not be regarded as a panacea for reducing the high incidence of waterborne diseases" — an additional disinfection process is recommended — but can make a valuable contribution to disease reduction.

"Parts of the world have mobile phone and Internet services but no food and potable water," Lea told SciDev.Net. "These trees are indigenous so the solution is in people's backyards. What is required now is knowledge dissemination.

"M. oleifera is the only indigenous treatment technology that addresses poverty and nutrition while also providing potable water."

Lea said that superstition has sometimes limited its use. For instance, in one area of Africa, more than three Moringa trees in a backyard is seen as a source of misfortune that brings poverty and death.

Vallantino Emongor, a M. oleifera expert at the University of Botswana, said: "What is exciting is that this tree is drought resistant and is accessible throughout Africa and India. Communities need to learn what the seeds can do."

Some countries, including Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, have formed associations to facilitate this.

The Clearinghouse research was published last month (18 February).

Link to full paper in Current Protocols in Microbiology

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Common pills, plastics making male fish lay eggs

WASHINGTON: Plastics, pesticides and even common prescription drugs are releasing synthetic and natural hormones into rivers and streams, which is leading to unintended consequences on wildlife, causing some male fish to become feminised and lay eggs.

In a recent report, it was found that one third of small mouth bass were feminised in nine major U.S. river basins, and almost all of the rivers and streams tested in the United States contained some hormonally active chemicals.

And now in a conference, the researchers are focusing on the long-term consequences of hormones and endocrine disruptors in the environment.

"It is one of the hottest topics in environmental biology right now. The biological activity of these compounds both in terms of other species and, potentially, ourselves is something that scientists are becoming more and more aware of through research," said Dr. John McLachlan, director of the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, which is hosting the conference.

Now scientists are looking at the proliferation of prescription drugs like antidepressants, contraceptives and other medications that are ending up in waste water after being taken by people.

Most municipal water treatment systems don't have the ability to neutralize pharmaceutical compounds in waste water so they end up in rivers and streams, said McLachlan.

"They all end up in different places in the environment. What do they do to the wildlife that absorb them and, more importantly, what do they do to our water sources?" he says.

A recent study found feminised male fish in almost a third of 111 sampling sites in nine major U.S. river basins and scientists are studying whether endocrine disruptors are responsible.

Tyron Hayes, a leading expert in inter sexed amphibians, will be speaking at the conference about his research on the effects of endocrine disruptors on wildlife.

The conference also discusses how hormones affect the body and endocrine system and how they may play a role in diseases like breast cancer.

The findings will be discussed in the Tenth International Symposium on Environment and Hormones (E.hormone 2009).

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