Effect of Storage Condition of Pea Pod on Water Disinfection

Abstract

Natural disinfectants are considered affordable and efficient substitutes to chemical disinfectants for use in developing countries where raw materials such as Cicer arietinum (green pea) are readily available. Polluted water is estimated to affect about 1200 million people and contribute to the death of 15 million children in the world per year. The excessive use of chemical disinfectant can affect human health in the long term; aluminum has been indicated to be a causative agent of neurologic diseases such as senile dementia. Researches confirms the high impact of Pea pod as a disinfectant in water treatment, but much researches have to be done to ascertain the effects of its storage on water disinfection. Therefore, the research aims at finding effect of storage condition (Temperature and pH) effect of pea pod on water disinfection. A suitable method was employed for the Pea pod processing. Pea pod was prepared and ground to powder. Phytochemical analysis of the Pea pod was done. 10% stock solution of the extract was prepared. Jar test for water disinfection, was carried out for High, Medium, low untreated synthetic waters, Kura surface (river) water and Zoo road well water. The process was repeated for the Pea pod powder at varying temperature and pH values. Disinfection increases with increase in dose of the Pea pod extract and Higher reductions were noted for Zoo road well water; for synthetic water, the % reduction ranges from 13.6 - 99.8%; for Kura surface raw water, the % reduction ranges from 3.36 - 99.99%, while for Zoo road well water, % reduction ranges from 50 - 99.99% corresponding to dose range of 400 – 2400mg/L for all samples. Disinfection increases with increase in initial infect. Also, pH increase of Pea pod towards alkalinity causes significant increase in infection, while the rate of pathogen removal increases with increase in temperature; p-value for t test and skewness range was 0.99 high indicating high correlations between 30, 40 and 50⁰C. It was recommended that Comparative research should be done on the efficiency of the different methods of Pea pod extraction. Also, Research should be conducted to discover the mode of attack of the Pea pod extract on the microbes.