Sir,
Thanks for your post. I must consider this too because in the study area, in most cases there are no functional facilities to manage stormwater ( the drainage systems)

Greetings,
If your design parameters permit, may you consider integrating a mycofiltration component into your system, provided there could be a flood and drain period? The white-rot, saprophyte Stropharia and the polypore Irpex species has showed potential to remove E. coli in water. It would not do well being flooded constantly,instead, providing a draining stage would be important. For reference, I attempted to upload a document "Mycofiltration Biotechnology for Pathogen Removal" , Paul Stamets, 2013.
fungi.com/pdf/articles/Fungi_Perfecti_Phase_I_Report.pdf

Best wishes on your project,
Jeff Holiman
Portland, Oregon, USA

Thanks a lot I will surely make use of these materials

Hello,
There has been quite a lot of work in Malawi also on this topic.

Check out:

Pritchard, M., Mkandawire, T., Edmondson, A., O’Neil, J. G., & Kululanga, G. (2009). Potential of using plant extracts for purification of shallow well water in Malawi. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 34, 799-805.

Best of luck,
Rochelle

Thanks. This is a very good one. we are gathering all previous works to build up our literature work. We shall make comparison of the plants. Though, our focus is to determine the the potentiality of using plumbago zeylanica for water disinfection and to replace the conventional chlorine at least at household level where local people that are familiar with the plants

I wonder if this research at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton is related to yours:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/23-hyg...eastern-africa-kenya

Sounds like the plant that they used (Senecio lyratipartitus) is another possible source that can be made into a disinfectant (in this case for hand sanitizers). Perhaps there are quite a few of such plants around?

Their project concluded in 2012 though, so I am not sure if further work has been carried out on it since thne.

Thank for your responses and enquiry. The study is on going in the department of Water Resources Management and Sanitation, Ogun State College of Health Technology, Ilese-Ijebu Nigeria in collaboration with departments of Medical Laboratory Techniques,Environmental Health Technology within the institution. Our previous studies showed that the roots extract of Plumbago zeylanica is more active against ranging of microorganisms especially E-coil feacal indicator in water treatment. See the published work in AASRJ volume 6 no 6

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Antimicrobial activity of Plumbago zeylanica plant extracts and its application in water and laboratory disinfection
Ayoade A. Adegbite, Abdulazeez A, Adebanjo, A.M Yusuf-Babatunde, Obafemi A.Solesi, Risikat A. Sowole

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial activities/ potentials of Plumbago zeylanica components (leaf, stem and root) on four bacterial species, Baccilus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia with the aim of using the active part of the plant to be used in water and laboratory disinfection. The plant parts crude extract was concentrated using a rotary evaporator and dried in a freeze drier. Different concentrations of the plant parts were then prepared from the dried plant extract and tested on the four pathogens using agar diffusion methods. The results indicated that active antimicrobial properties are concentrated more in the roots been very effective against Escherichia coli even at low concentration. However, at higher concentration all the plant extracts became effective against the bacteria. The study concludes that the roots of Plumbago zeylanica possess the highest antimicrobial potentials for disinfection. Then, the root extract was tested on effluent water and the results showed significance reduction level of Escherichia coli.

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The second stage of the study we are carrying out toxicological effects of the root extract of the plant on the vital organs of rats in order to determine the level of tolerance and toxic levels of the extract. Then we subject various wastewater treatment with the extract then determine microbiological qualities.

It is definitely an experimental studies where all the parameters you asked with be varied and the outcome will be determine. The purpose is for household level water treatment, with another outcome of possibilities of using the extract as sanitizers.

Thanks for your input. Do let us know more about this work.

1. Where are the trials being carried out?
2. What species of plants are we talking about? Higher aquatics? eg Hyacinth
3. Are we talking about greywater, blackwater or both?
4. What are the volumes of wastewater and residence time?
5. What levels of root specific surface areas are needed to treat the wastewater?

See www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26684985 for the following recent paper

Rezania et al. 2015. The Efficient Role of Aquatic Plant (Water Hyacinth) in Treating Domestic Wastewater in Continuous System. Int J Phytoremediation. 2015 Dec 18:0.

Abstract
In this study, Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was used to treat domestic wastewater. Ten organic and inorganic parameters were monitored in three weeks for water purification. The six chemical, biological and physical parameters included Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Ammoniacal Nitrogen (NH3-N), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and pH were compared with the Interim National Water Quality Standards, Malaysia River classification (INWQS) and Water Quality Index (WQI). Between 38% to 96% of reduction was observed and water quality has been improved from class III and IV to class II. Analyses for Electricity Conductivity (EC), Salinity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Ammonium (NH4) were also investigated. In all parameters, removal efficiency was in range of 13-17th day (optimum 14th day) which was higher than 3 weeks except DO. It reveals the optimum growth rate of water hyacinth has great effect on waste water purification efficiency in continuous system and nutrient removal was successfully achieved.

KEYWORDS:
Continuous System; Phytoremediation; Removal efficiency; Wastewater treatment; Water Hyacinth

From our previous studies, it was found out that the roots of an antimicrobial plants extract highly and efficiently inhibit various growth of microorganisms in wastewater. We are now designing a prototype model for groundwater infiltration systems, where the wastewater are allowed to make contact with the roots of the plants and flow through the roots before percolating into the groundwater system. We hope the study is feasible if we can estimate/determine residence time, flow, hydraulic properties, turbidity and microbial load of the wastewater. We are kindly requesting for information, resources to assist us