Potential of Echium ameonum Fisch and Mey in Removing Heavy Metals from Pharmaceutical Effluent

Afra Jafari¹, Gholamreza Amin²  and Parisa ziarati^*3

¹Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAUPS), Tehran, Iran.

²Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAUPS), Tehran, Iran.

³Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAUPS), Tehran, Iran.

Corresponding Author E-mail: ziarati.p@iaups.ac.ir

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2303

ABSTRACT: The environmental and physical consequences of improper pharmaceutical waste management are serious. Hazardous chemical materials and Pharmaceutical waste from educational laboratory systems usually is thrown into the trash or dumped into a sink and thereby placed in the sewer waste stream. If these chemical compounds are not biodegraded or eliminated during sewage treatment, they eventually reach drinking water. In fact, most sewage and water treatment facilities do not take pharmaceutical contaminants into consideration, so these wastes are left untreated to enter our surface, ground, and drinking water. The main waste streams that educational sites of pharmaceutical Sciences branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran   were Cobalt and Cadmium compounds. The majority of the effluent from laboratories consists primarily of a mixture of water and acid and as its toxicity to the staff; they were confined to fume hoods. Information regarding the extent and concentration of all the chemicals expected to be used in the laboratory were mainly obtained from the end user. These chemicals have founded their way into the drain pipe. Due to vast medicinal benefits of   Echium amoenum Fisch & C.A. Mey and availability of its dried flowers in Tehran market, we chose it for cleaning –up the soil. E. amoenum dried flowers added as an adsorbent in soil samples under different experimental conditions in this study and have been studied after every 3 days in 30 days. Aerial parts of growing basil  in every three  days in companion of E. amoenum fruits in the soils  were separated in 3 days and digested by wet method according the standard protocol  for measuring Cadmium ,Chrome (III) and (VI)  , Nickel and Lead. Mean values were calculated, and the data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance, completely randomized block design (ANOVA). Results revealed that E. amoenum flowers have more potential to absorb Cobalt than Cadmium first days of study (p<0.003). The present study focused on adsorption capacity of Cr (VI), Cr (III), Co and Cd , Ni and Pb   by E. amoenum was investigated in a batch system by considering the effects of various parameters like contact time, initial concentrations, pH , temperature, absorbent dose. The results of this study revealed that E. amoenum fruit can accumulate high level of Cobalt, Chrome (VI) and (III)   in a short time and their uptake rate by vegetable and edible plant is significantly affected by their concentrations in the contaminated soil (p<0.05). A contact time of 15 days   by E. amoenum was found to be optimum and 90.6% Cr (VI), 82.3% Cr(III),78.9% Co,  70.3% Pb and 48.6% Ni  was taken by adsorbent from contaminated soil while a few amounts of these heavy metals being uptake by edible vegetable – basil. To quantify the occurrence and the distribution of heavy metals,  to evaluate their effects, and to prevent them from passing through wastewater collection and treatment systems into soil  and ground water bodies represents an urgent task for applied environmental sciences in the coming years. Public acceptance of green technologies is generally higher than that of industrial processes. The responsible organizations should stimulate research to upgrade existing waste water treatment by implementing phytoremediation modules and demonstrating their reliability to the public.

KEYWORDS: Pharmaceutical effluent; Adsorbent; Clean-up Soil; Echium ameonum Fisch and Mey

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