Physicochemical and Spectroscopic Evaluation of Adsorption potentials of Activated Charcoal from stem parts of Mangifera indica, Persea gratissima and Psidium guajava for Pharmaceutical medicine

Abstract

Activated charcoal which comes in synonyms of; carbon, charcoal, medicoal and Norit is very useful in the field of pharmaceutical medicine and in industries. The medicoal samples were sourced for this study from Nigerian plants, namely; Mangifera indica (Mangoe tree), Psidium guajara (Guava tree) and Persea gratissima (Avocado tree). Samples were prepared by carbonization and thermal activation prior to characterization evidence such as percentage of carbonized residues, ash values, fixed carbon contents, pH of aqueous solution, and limits of heavy metal presence. Liquid phase study was conducted by adoption of Freundlich adsorption model. Following this, data were generated for adsorption profile of methylene Blue (MB) on the various samples of activated charcoal inclusive of the commercial grade (standard). Ultra violet spectroscopy was used to measure the respective adsorption capacities. The results were statistically significant using a one-tail (ANOVA) at confidence level of P < 0.05. Persea gratissima ranked the highest in performance out of the three test samples with MB adsorption (9.95 mg/g) and compared favourably with the standard (9.96mg/g). Psidium guajava exhibited the least performance (1.04mg/g). All samples showed desirable aqueous pH of range (6-8). The research has shown that low cost and easily accessible, locally sourced activated charcoal is a recommendable alternative to the commercially available products.