WATER PURIFYING LEAF

Coriander or cilantro, the leafy
herb used to garnish a wide
variety of everyday Indian
cuisine, has started attaining
fame in the United States as a
possible low-cost herbal remedy
to purify drinking water.
The discovery holds the potential
to address the heavy metal
contaminated groundwater
problem in the industrial belts of
the country. P.S. Harikumar, who
heads the water quality division
of the Centre for Water
Resources Development and
Management (CWRDM), told The
Hindu that Kerala has a serious
heavy metal contaminated water
problem for various reasons.
The industrial areas of
Ambalamedu, Kalamassery, Eloor
and Chavara are some of the
highly contaminated areas. Lack
of proper solid waste treatment
also aggravates such
contamination when items like
batteries, cosmetics and electrical
appliances are carelessly
dumped, Dr. Harikumar says.
The discovery of the coriander
potential to purify such water
could also compliment the
ongoing CWRDM programme to
find various methods to address
the heavy metal contamination
problem in the State, he says.
Possessing a flavour that
everyone savours, the coriander
leaf (Kothamalli in Malayalam)
“has the ability to drink up heavy
metals like lead and nickel that
have leaked into groundwater.”
Studies are continuing to learn
how well the herb can remove
other heavy metals such as
arsenic and mercury.
The discovery was presented on
September 12 at the 246th
annual National Meeting and
Exposition of the American
Chemical Society (ACS) by scientist
Douglas Schauer of Ivy Tech
Community College of Indiana,
who led a research team to
Mexico to find low-cost materials
that could filter away industrial
pollutants in groundwater. The
research report has been
published by the ACS.
Cilantro is also a commonly used
cooking herb in Mexico, which
also has a serious groundwater
pollution problem, Prof. Schauer
said. “Our hope is for somebody
who lives in such regions to
simply be able go in their
backyard and grab a handful of
cilantro, maybe let it dry out for a
couple days sitting on a rock in
the sun, and then maybe a
handful of that would purify a
pitcher of water,” he said.
He also believes that dried
cilantro could someday be
packaged like teabags, or as
reusable water-filter cartridges
to remove heavy metals from
impure water.