Harnessing Indonesia's biodiversity for sustainable water treatment: a review of local plant-based solutions.

Access to clean water is a critical global issue, with millions of people facing significant challenges, particularly in Southeast Asia. Recent research has increasingly focused on Indonesia's rich biodiversity to develop environmentally friendly water purification methods using local plant materials. This approach offers a promising alternative to artificial water treatment solutions. This paper reviews the literature regarding using Indonesia's local plants for water treatment. The analysis highlights three main aspects: the local plants that might be utilized, the mechanisms involved in the treatment process, and the types of treated water. The local plants considered encompass aquatic and wetland plants, fruit plants, fiber plants, grain plants, medicinal and ornamental plants, timber and latex-producing trees, as well as vegetables and food crops. The mechanisms involved in water treatment using Indonesia's local plants include adsorption, coagulation-flocculation, membrane filtration, and phytoremediation. The types of treated water encompass challenging raw water such as peat water, wetland saline water, river, and well water, along with various forms of wastewater, including domestic wastewater, aquaculture effluent, effluent from tofu-tempeh and tapioca factories, textile industry wastewater, dye waste from the batik industry, wastewater containing heavy metals, and effluent from oil and gas factories. Further investigation is essential, particularly to expand upon laboratory results from recent years, enabling these methods to address the issue of clean water scarcity effectively.