Water is essential to life,
yet naturally pure,
clean water is increasingly
hard to find in the modern world.
Today's workshop, will show you how to
purify water with natural materials at home.
By doing so, you will be able not only to
ensure the water you're drinking is pure,
but you can also learn to appreciate
the depth and range of flavour within water.
My name is Francesca,
I'm a designer, I'm based
in London, United Kingdom.
And today I'm going to show you how to use
some natural materials to purify water.
On the table I have many natural materials
that can be used to purify water.
You have the moringa, we
have binchotan charcoal,
pine tree, cilantro, rosemary,
lemon, clay, terracotta.
Let's start from my favourite one and is not
only my favourite it's also the most powerful.
That is moringa, moringa,
moringa seeds, are the seeds of
the moringa tree and
they are amazing cleanser.
So there's been studies since
the 1970's on using these seeds to
purify water, like a natural filter
because they're able to
trap the suspended particles
of chemicals and heavy metals
that are in the water.
What you have to do to use it as a filter,
you take some seeds,
you put in a mortar, something like that.
I'm using my grandmother's
marbled one, It's my favourite,
and then you start grinding it
to obtain a very fine sand,
and you put in the water, then you leave it.
You leave it for awhile.
Better, like at least six to eight hours,
but better, to leave it over night.
In general, the water filter obtain
with natural material, works
better when they are very slow.
So then you leave it and the
moringa seeds will work for you.
Another very interesting method
to clean water
with a plant is using a pine tree.
Most of the trees, or I
would say all of the trees have
sort of a lymphatic system,
and these lymphatic system
consists in the sapwood. That is
a porous tissue that is
inside the branch of the conifers.
In this case is a pine tree.
So you just need to
source a branch of the pine tree,
in this case, I went to
a garden that is not far from my place.
These porous, sapwood that is inside is
able to trap a lot of bacteria and chemicals,
so it's perfect as a filter.
So actually you need to clean
the bark of the branch.
Once you have clean it very well,
you're going to need a bottle.
So the same size of the branch,
so in this case it is smaller,
so I can use the small bottle.
And then you're going to need
one of these clips,
to fix the branch to the bottle so
the water will pass
through the lymphatic system of the tree,
So our natural filter and slowly drop
by drop will fill the glass.
Another plant that is
a very powerful filter,
very powerful cleanser,
but also very common plant is cilantro,
some researchers in the Tula Valley
has demonstrated on how this
plant has a very
strong absorbent capacity.
The way you have to use it is dry.
So you need to dry the cilantro.
You can do it at home or using
a dehydrator or in the sun.
So I have dried mine,
and then you need to have a tea bag,
and you can put the cilantro inside
the tea bag and leave it in
and infuse it for a few minutes.
The bentonite clay is obtained
by aged volcanic ashes,
and it's something from the soil,
so not exactly a plant,
but something that has
a strong relation with soil.
So let's say the clay has
a double effect. From one side,
it helps to purify water
from chemicals and heavy metals,
and on the other side,
it release good minerals inside
of it, so it's purifying
and mineralising the water.
So that is a very interesting matter
to use in relation to water.
So to give you an idea of the quantity for
two litres of water,
you are going to need one spoon of clay.
Terracotta in general has always
been the perfect material to store
water because it's able to maintain
the water 10 to
15 degrees under the room temperature.
So it really maintains the water fresh and
even the taste is very good.
Very similar to clay,
charcoal, binchotan charcoal,
traditionally from Japan,
very strong capability
of trapping the chemicals,
the suspended particles, chlorine,
lead, copper that you find in the water.
And at the same time, like clay,
giving to the water
some very good minerals
like magnesium, potassium.
If you have a stick of binchotan charcoal,
you just, you simply put in a jar.
Otherwise, you can decide to use
the binchotan charcoal powder,
and thus you're going to a
have very nice effect
because with just two spoon
inside one litre of water,
you are going to obtain a black water.
So a purified black water, and so
quite intriguing
in term of aesthetic results.
Or you can play magic and use crystals.
So I like to energize water with crystal.
So it's not exactly filtering system,
but more the way to yeah,
to electrify the water
so you can believe it or not,
but it comes out with very nice results.
So you put a crystal at
night and you leave it overnight and,
and then you can drink it.