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Cilantro Removes Toxic Heavy Metals from Water Says Study

September 17, 2013 By: Anna7 Comments

 

Cilantro is quite the versatile plant.  Not only can it kick up your salsa, but it shows promise as an inexpensive method of removing toxic heavy metals (such as lead)  in contaminated water.  In fact, research conducted by Ivy Community College undergraduates under the direction of Douglas Schauer, PhD. with scientists at the  Universidad Politécnica de Francisco I. Madero in Hidalgo revealed —although small scale—cilantro could be more effective than traditional carbon filtration.

Mexico does not  have a filtration system for heavy metals water pollution, and cilantro grows wild in the country.

How Does Cilantro Clean the Water?

According to Schauer, the outer wall of the microscopic cells that make up the plant are ideal for absorption of heavy metals.  In fact, parsley has similar features and could also act as a biosorbent.

Expensive or Inexpensive Method

Growing cilantro arguably isn’t a cost effective solution.   Schauer notes in certain countries like Mexico where the water contains heavy metal pollution, it grows wild.  Thus, harvesting cilantro makes it a cheaper solution than activated carbon used in home water purification filters or advanced technologies such as ion-exchange resins.

“Our goal is to find biosorbents that people in developing countries could obtain for nothing,” Schauer explained. “When the filter in a water purification pitcher needs to be changed, they could go outside, gather a handful of cilantro or some other plant, and presto, there’s a new filter ready to purify the water.”

The Future?

The key to an invention is scaling  it for practical use.   Currently, his team is in the process of creating practical devices such a tea bag-like packets, reusable water filter cartridges  and other devices to remove heavy metals inexpensively.

In addition, he will be studying whether cilantro can remove arsenic from water as well.  Arsenic in water has been linked to cancer, development delays, diabetes and weakened immune system.

Questions I still had:

  1. Could coriander seed (cilantro seed) accomplish the same heavy metal removal?
  2. Could cilantro remove heavy metals from the soil?
  3. Could cilantro remove arsenic from water?

As Schauer’s team continued their research, hopefully, the above questions will be answered.

Source:  Phsy.org

 

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About Anna

Anna Hackman is the editor of Green Talk, and owner of The Naked Botanical and a avid (okay obsessed) gardener. She also loves video and podcasting and hosts Green Talk TV and Green Talk Radio. Her most important role is being a mother of four boys.

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Comments

  1. 1

    Kat says

    September 17, 2013 at 9:45 am

    Interesting! Yet another miracle of nature. Hopefully more research can be done on this, thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • 2

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 18, 2013 at 8:09 am

      Kat, absolutely. If we just looked to nature rather than live through chemicals, we would be better off. Anna

      Reply
  2. 3

    Marla says

    September 18, 2013 at 8:58 am

    It would be wonderful if cilantro could remove metals from water and soil. Nature does supply us with the natural resources if we only take the time to find them. I truly hope that more research is done on this very soon. Thanks for sharing this in information.

    Reply
    • 4

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 19, 2013 at 12:25 am

      Marla, I asked that question–if it could remove metals from the soil. Douglas said he thought there were studies about this but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Anna

      Reply
  3. 5

    Nancy wright says

    December 19, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    Question: does the cilantro absorb any of the metals and if we eat it, are we still absorbing metals?

    Reply
    • 6

      Anna@Green Talk says

      December 20, 2013 at 12:36 am

      Nancy, I wouldn’t reuse the cilantro if you are using it for metal extraction. Honestly, I don’t know if the body would absorb the metals. Anna

      Reply
  4. 7

    McKenzie says

    February 6, 2017 at 6:27 pm

    I would have never thought that cilantro could do that. That is so neat! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

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