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Water is essential for life. For its portability it must be free from physical, chemical and biological
impurities. Presence of salt in it made it hard and hard water is the major cause of many health
problems particularly kidney stone. If it is hard it cannot be used for drinking, cooking, washing and
other purposes like irrigation, industrial applications etc,. The hardness of water due to salt is very
difficult to remove. Therefore it is necessary to find simple and effective methods to remove hardness
in water. The hard water samples were collected from Melachinthamani bore well, Tiruchirappalli.
Its physicochemical characters were analyzed by standard methods and it was treated with
Phyllanthus embilca. The physicochemical and biological parameters such as colour, odour, taste,
pH, acidity, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate
and bacteria were examined. The results of this study revealed that the water sample is hard and
with microbes. Phyllanthus emblica wood reduced total hardness and microbial load.
Key word: Phyllanthus embilca, total hardness, hard water treatment, physicochemical nature.