Simultaneous removal of methylene blue dye and waterborne pathogens from wastewater using extract of Embelia schimperi fruits

In this study, we report the use of Embelia schimperi fruits’extract to simultaneously remove methylene blue dye and pathogens from wastewater. The extract of Embelia schimperi fruits was characterized by Atomic force Microscopy and Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy. The adsorption properties of the crude extracts of the fruits were explored as a function of dosage, contact time, pH, initial methylene blue concentrations, and temperature. As a result, the highest removal efficiency of methylene blue was found to be 99.2% at optimum conditions. The adsorption data demonstrated that the adsorption of Embelia schimperi followed the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.94899) and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.99326). Besides, crude extracts of the fruits showed significant antibacterial properties against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Agar diffusion tests confirmed that Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were highly sensitive to the crude extracts of Embelia schimperi fruits, followed by Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi. Thus, the findings of this study confirm the promising potential of Embelia schimperi fruits as a natural adsorbent used to remove methylene blue dye and pathogenic bacteria at the same time from wastewater. KEY WORDS: Embelia schimperi, Adsorption, Isotherm, Kinetic, Methylene blue, Waterborne pathogens   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2024, 38(2), 281-296.                                                                DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v38i2.1