Ferns and arsenic, can you see what the two share in common with each other? Need some help? Well here’s some brief info on them.
Ferns
Ferns are hardy little (or maybe some not so little) plant-life whose native habitats range from the tropics to the Arctic and from deserts to swamps. They have many many and even more uses but most commonly they are:
- Consumed for meal (they make a scrumptious Malay dish called Gulai Lemak Pucuk Paku- a personal favourite!)
- Made into medicine and health tonics as they contain healing/health beneficial qualities
- Made into shampoo, soap, potpourri and other scent related products
- Made into jewellery.
Arsenic
The first thought that comes to mind when anyone hears the word ‘Arsenic’ is ‘POISON’. And it’s fair to think that because of how popular it was during the Middle Ages to commit the sin (kill) with arsenic. Back then, they didn’t have the technology to detect arsenic poisoning, so many such deaths were mistakenly concluded to be the result of pneumonia instead. But that’s a thing of the past because in our modern age, arsenic is easily detected in an autopsy.
Another interesting fact to know about this King of Poisons is how it isn’t just used in pesticides, rat poison or herbicides, it’s also used in poultry farming –arsenic is mixed into feed to increase weight gain, kill stomach parasites, improve the colour of chicken meat and rear bigger breasted birds.
Ferns and arsenic, they do mix
Ferns and arsenic meet each other when one poisons ground water and the other cleans it up of the pollutant. No prize for guessing which one does what.
The main cause of arsenic contaminated water is Anthropogenic (no one should ignore the mass poisoning of Bangladesh water). The price of cleaning up such a contamination is insurmountable with the high cost involved, the generation of high volumes of toxic sludge and brine, and low water recovery.
And this is where ferns come into play. Scientists from the Edenspace Systems Corporation in Dulles, Virginia have discovered a species of fern called Pteris vittata that sucks arsenic out of tainted water. Based on their study, the plants were found to reduce the concentration to below the safety limit set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in less than a day!
The procedure is known as phytofiltration and it does not result in the production of a hard to dispose arsenic-rich chemical sludge. Instead, when pressed, the sap contains about three-quarters of the arsenic absorbed by the plant, which can then be extracted for industrial uses.
These ferns growing directly in the water source could be the world’s solution for removing arsenic from water supplies.
