Water question is surely one of the main factors that are
involved in the human development considering its influence on
human lives. Among the new techniques for water and wastewater
treatment there is the use of natural coagulants, aiming at a
better quality of treated water by reducing the use of chemicals.
Namely, coagulation/flocculation step which is essential process
in the treatment of both surface water and industrial wastewater,
includes removal of dissolved organic species and turbidity
from water most commonly via addition of conventional chemicalbased
coagulants – alum, ferric chloride and synthetic organic
polymers. While the effectiveness of these chemicals as coagulants
is well-recognized (Edzwald, 1993; Kang et al., 2003) there
are, nonetheless, disadvantages associated with their usage such
as ineffectiveness in low-temperature water (Haaroff and Cleasby,
1988), relatively high procurement costs, detrimental effects on
human health, production of large sludge volumes and the fact that
they significantly affect pH of treated water. There is also strong evidence
linking aluminum-based coagulants to the development of
Alzheimer’s disease in human beings (Flaten, 2001). It is therefore
desirable to replace these chemical coagulants with plant-based
coagulants to counteract the aforementioned drawbacks.