The Potency of Indonesia Native Plants as Natural Coagulant: a Mini Review

Abstract

Indonesia is a tropical country which is known for its high variety of natural resources. However, there is limited access to clean water, thus forcing people in rural areas to use turbid water. Furthermore, some of water sources in Indonesia are already polluted by heavy metals with high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) value. Simple and easy water purification method are needed to overcome this situation. Coagulation and flocculation are widely used method to treat water. However, chemical coagulants (alum, ferrum, PAC, etc.) are not easily obtained and could cause some health problems if treated water is consumed. Natural coagulants have a good potential to solve these problems. Various possible plant-based natural coagulants which are abundant in Indonesia are highlighted in this paper. Fruit wastes and inedible legumes are suggested to be used as natural coagulant as there are no food competition presents. Further research is needed especially to scale up laboratory scale research that has been done in these years; thus, it can be applied to solve clean water scarcity problem.