EVALUATION OF ALOE VERA POTENTIAL AS A SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE SUBSTITUTE FOR WELL-WATER DISINFECTION
The need to find alternative water disinfectants without negative consequential health effects is imperative in view of the link that had been established between human consumption of chlorinated water and diseases such as cancer. Therefore, this study was set out to evaluate and compare the water disinfection potential of aloe vera and sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) in order to determine the suitability of using aloe vera as sodium hypochlorite substitute. The coliform count of the faecal thermo-tolerant coliform (non-Ecoli) isolated from well water sample was 49 cfu/100ml. Disinfectant efficacies of the NaOCl and Aloe Vera, stored under various conditions, were evaluated and compared using disc diffusion method to determine disinfection susceptibility of the isolated coliform. The two disinfectants showed increase in level of zone of inhibition of the isolated coliforms with increase in disinfectants storage concentration and sun exposure period. As a disinfectant, aloe vera seemed to be more stable when compared with NaOCl at the storage temperatures of 0, 25 and 35oC. The p-values for using aloe vera and NaOCl as disinfectants under various conditions of concentration, temperature and sun exposure period ranged between 0.247 and 1.000 indicating non-significant difference when aloe vera was used as sodium hypochlorite substitute.