Effective removal of enteric viruses by Moringa oleifera seed extract functionalized cotton filter

Accessible and low-cost point-of-use technologies have significant potential to mitigate risk to public health, particularly in areas with limited resources and in disaster scenarios. Natural cotton fibers functionalized with water-soluble proteins from Moringa oleifera seeds (MO-cotton filter) are a promising technology at lab-scale with demonstrated feasibility for pathogen removal from water. Here, we showed the performance of MO-cotton filters under practically relevant conditions to remove mammalian virus spiked in groundwater. Specifically, MO-cotton filters achieved > 3.2-log10 reduction at a superficial velocity of 0.7 m/h of two mammalian viruses Tulane virus (TV, Caliciviridae, non-enveloped virus) and Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV, Coronaviridae, enveloped virus), which are representative of a significant portion of waterborne illnesses. We further evaluated the risk of virus particles detached due to shear forces by testing their infectivity and found that the viruses accumulated on the MO-cotton filters pose a minimal risk of contaminating the drinking water source.