ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Water and Wastewater Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1615815
Tomato Leaves as a Sustainable Biosorbent for the Effective Removal of Some Organic Dyes and Lead from Water
Provisionally accepted
Layan Helmi1
Suhair Sunoqrot2
Akram Hijazi3
Maria Alayli1
Hiba N. RAJHA4Maram Al Bakri1
Mohammad H El-Dakdouki1
Nada El Darra1*- 1Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Amman, Jordan
- 3Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon
- 4Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
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Water, an essential component for life and agriculture, is increasingly threatened by contamination. Industrial wastewater is a major source of pollution that continues to negatively impact ecosystems and human health. It contains contaminants such as dyes, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides, emphasizing the urgent need for effective water purification methods. This study investigates the valorization of tomato leaves as a potential adsorbent for these pollutants. Characterization of untreated and contaminant-treated tomato leaves by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microcopy (SEM), confirmed the presence of significant functional group interactions and surface active sites suited for adsorption. Tomato leaves demonstrated significant adsorption capabilities for contaminants like methylene blue, malachite green, crystal violet, and lead, achieving removal efficiencies of 90.7% ± 0.3, 93.6% ± 0.5, 89.8% ± 0.6, and 78.4% ± 0.2, respectively, at an initial contaminant concentration of 20 mg/L. High adsorption effectiveness was also observed across various dye concentrations (5-25 mg/L) and contact times (5-120 min). Isotherm analysis indicated that lead adsorption followed the Langmuir model and Henry adsorption isotherm with a maximum adsorption capacity of 45.77 mg/g, while dyes aligned with the Freundlich model, with adsorption kinetics best fitting the pseudo-second order model in all cases. To our knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively evaluate the adsorption of both heavy metals (Pb²⁺) and three structurally different cationic dyes using raw, unmodified tomato leaves. This provides a sustainable, cost-effective, and green solution for the removal of diverse pollutants from water. Future
Keywords: Adsorption, heavy metals, Industrial wastewater, Sustainable purification, Tomato leaves, Water contamination French (France)
Received: 21 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Helmi, Sunoqrot, Hijazi, Alayli, RAJHA, Al Bakri, El-Dakdouki and El Darra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nada El Darra, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon
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