ABSTRACT

The water purification potential of the seeds of Moringa oleifera (drumstick plant) on two surface waters was assessed using standard microbiological and physicochemical techniques. Qualitative phytochemical screening of the seeds was also carried out and it revealed that alkaloids. flavonoids, saponins, steroids, glycosides and proteins were present in the seeds. The microbial analysis carried out before treatment of the water samples revealed that total aerobic bacterial plate count, Salmonella/Shigella count, Escherichia coli count, coliform count and total fungal count ranged from 1.27 x 10to 2.33 x 10°cfu/ml, 4.5 x10to 6.9 x 10° cfu/ml, 5.6 x 10to 9.9 x 10° cfu/ml, 150 to 460MPN/1OOml and 8.4 x 10to 9.7 x 10 cfu/ml respectively. The results of the microbial analysis after treatment of the water samples with the varying concentrations of the Moringa oleifera seed solution showed that all the microbial counts reduced drastically as the concentration of the seed solution increased. Hence. the seed possessed antimicrobial activities. Physicochemical analysis of the water samples carried out before treatment revealed that turbidity, pH, total dissolved solids and hardness ranged from 8.18 to 19.3 NTU, 7.19 to 7.45, 79 to 273mg/l and 60.0 to 79.2mg/l respectively. However, physicochemical analysis carried out after treatment revealed that Moringa oleifera seeds showed coagulating and softening activities on the water samples. The results showed that the values of the physicochemical parameters reduced as the concentration of the seed solution increased. Turbidity, pH, total dissolved solids and hardness were found to range from 0.04 to 4.58NTU, 6.74 to 6.90, 56 to 115mg/I and 45.2 to 52.0 respectively. The coagulating, antimicrobial and softening activities of M. oleifera seed prove that they are effective water purification agents for household and small-scale water treatment.