A team of students from Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana has discovered that some plants are stellar purifiers. Led by Douglas Schauer, PhD, associate professor and program chair of chemical technology at the school, the students traveled to an impoverished region of Mexico in search of a plant to remove heavy metals from the uber-polluted water. Dr. Schauer had an inkling that cactus would perform the best, but the students tested the lead-removing capacity of every plant they could dig up. One student in the chemical technology program, Saina Husain, chose to analyze cilantro, and it turned out to be one of the best detoxifyers. Dandelion also performed surprisingly well. “It turns out the cactus didn’t do very well at all,” Dr. Schauer said. “These two were the big winners, which is ironic, considering that we have them here in our backyard,” he said. The findings could have huge implications for areas of the world without access to expensive purification systems like activated carbon or ion-exchange. And cilantro couldn’t have chosen to grow in a better spot: ““The parts of the world with a lot of water problems are the same areas where cilantro grows naturally,” Husain said. Though cilantro and dandelion passed muster in removing lead and nickel, the team hopes for even more. They plan to conduct future studies on removal rates of other heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. Could dandelion or cilantro be the all-natural solution to the arsenic in our apple juice? “There’s potential there,” Dr. Schauer said. “It would be an interesting experiment to see what would happen if we passed apple juice through a filter made out of cilantro, that’s for sure.” So next time you’re bored with your Brita, try this organic science experiment at home. Chop up cilantro—you don’t need much, only about a handful per liter of water—into small pieces, and seal it inside a teabag. Steep and stir in room-temperature water, and voila! Plant-powered purity. More from Prevention: Ask Dr. Weil: What’s The Deal With Alkaline Water?
