Plant extracts as an eco-friendly approach to remove paraquat from aqueous solution.

Contamination of raw water with herbicides such as paraquat (PQ) is recognized as a problem in many countries. PQ is known as a chemical contaminant that is highly toxic with high water solubilities (620 g/l) among herbicides. Despite the ban on the use of PQ in some countries, due to its low price, high efficiency at low concentrations, and high speed of paraquat in suppressing weeds, today this herbicide is used to control a wide range of weeds in the world. In recent years, various approaches to removing PQ from the environment have been studied. Some of these methods are relatively time-consuming and expensive, with large amounts of sludge and hazardous by-products. Among the mentioned methods, the adsorption process shows the simplicity of operation, low-cost process, and high efficiency in removing PQ from water. Recently, many adsorbents have been developed to remove PQ from aqueous solutions, including biochar, activated carbon, chitosan and alginate, clay, rice husk, and bentonite. Plant extracts may be known as new adsorbent materials for removing PQ from water as an eco-friendly and economical process. Therefore, in this study we investigate the plant extracts performance as adsorbents in PQ removal from water.