RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The acceptable concentration of fluoride in drinking water is 1.5mg/l. Excess fluoride in drinking water causes fluorosis. Fluorosis is an important public health problem in India. Several treatment technologies suggested in the past for removing excess fluoride generated and causes various chemical byproductswhich are hazardous to public. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest to use natural materials due to cost and associated health and environmental concerns of synthetic organic polymers and inorganic chemicals. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the defluoridating capability of the brushite-calcite with that of two indigenous herbs, tulsi and wheat grass. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One gram of brushite-calcite combination, tulsi and wheat grass were separately added to 10 containers, each containing 1.0 l of prepared distilled water with a fluoride concentration of 5ppm and naturally fluoridated water at 2ppm. Half of the samples were boiled for one minute in a domestic electric kettle for one minute and allowed to cool. The remaining half of the samples was left un-boiled. Fluoride concentration in all the samples was assessed at the end of 30 minutes and 24 hours using fluoride ion selective electrode method. Data was analyzed using unpaired t-test and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: For water with 2ppm and 5ppm fluoride, brushite-calcite had shown highest de-fluoridation capacity (p=0.001) at the end of both 30 minutes and 24 hours in boiled samples whereas tulsi (p=0.001) was most effective in un-boiled samples. CONCLUSION: The results of the study suggest that tulsi can be used for domestic water defluoridation as it is economic, safe and effective.
