ABSTRACT

Glipizide (GLI) is one of the commonly produced drugs in the pharmaceutical industries in
our environment. The adverse effect as unused drugs or expired drugs on humans,
animals, aquatic life and environment is a serious public health problem. This study
involved the development of a surface functionalized Activated Carbon (AC) from velvet
tamarind shell. The AC was oxidized with HNO3 to produce oxidized activated carbons (OAC)
that were surface functionalized using ethylene diamine to produce basic surfaces (BAC)
and ethylamine to produce hydrophobic carbonaceous surfaces (HAC).The adsorption of
GLIin deionized water and spiked pharmaceutical liquid waste each, on these carbons were
investigated using quantities adsorbed/adsorption capacity (qe) and percentage (%) of the
drug adsorbed. The adsorption capacity, qe and %Adsorbed with time, of GLI from the
spiked Pharmaceutical Liquid Waste (PLW), of the different carbons follow similar order to
that from deionized water. The adsorption of GLI from both deionized water and spiked
PLW, using the carbons, show the trend: HAC > OAC > BAC, both for adsorption capacity
(qe) and % adsorption .GLI adsorption from spiked Pharmaceutical Liquid Waste (PLW),
showed slightly less capacity than that from deionized water but the same trend and the
different percentage adsorbed showed significant difference having P<0.05.
Keywords: Glipizide, public health and Activated Carbon (AC)