Research Article published by Science Publishing Group
Several studies have reported various defluoridation capabilities of plant biomasses. The resultant variations in
fluoride removal capacities are associated with the presence of different types of active functional groups in the respective
biomasses. This study reports of the fluoride removal efficiencies of sisal leaf biomass in comparison. Comparison with other
plant biomasses were made and hence the fluoride removal efficiencies of maize leaf (ML), goose grass (GG), banana false
stem (BFS), Aloe vera (AV), untreated sisal fibre (USF) and sisal pith (SP) with similar active functional groups but different
stereochemistry and solubility of the active compounds are reported. A portion of 0.5 g of each biomass was mixed with a 10
mg/l fluoride solution in a 10 ml portions under the same experimental conditions. The maximum fluoride removal capacity
of sisal fibre biomass was found to be 26.6 %. By comparison, the fluoride removal efficiencies of ML, GG, BFS, AV, USF
and SP were found to be, 4.1, 4.6, 7.1, 26.6, 29.4 and 47.3 % respectively. This suggests that, stereochemistry and solubility of
the active compounds have a significant role to play in water defluoridation by plant biomasses, and thus, knowledge of the
stereochemistry and solubility of the active compounds in plant biomass is very important to fully unlock biomass’
defluoridation potentials.