Methylene blue removal from aqueous solution by Hylocereus undatus (dragon fruit) foliage

Dragon fruit foliage in its natural form was applied for decolorization of methyleneblue,a cationic dye from aqueous solution. The effects of major parameters like initial dye concentration, pH, adsorbent dose, temperature and contact time were investigated in batch experimental set-up. The optimum values for removal of methylene blue were identified to be pH 9.0 with 30 hours contact time using 1.2 g L−1biosorbent dosage at 250mg L−1 initial dye concentration. The present results suggested that foliage of dragon fruit can be a potential agricultural byproduct to be used as an environmental friendly and low cost biosorbent.