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Despite being a good source of vitamins and fibre, many of us are put off eating okra due to the weird 'slime' that oozes from the vegetable when we cut into it.

Now, scientists say okra slime could be put to good use, as a way to filter water of microplastics - tiny pieces of plastic less than 0.2 of an inch (5mm) in diameter.  

Goo from okra, healthtopical.com as well as plants including aloe and cactus, contain chemicals that are called 'flocculants' - meaning they clump up, taking microplastics with them. 

Such a method offers an alternative to using potentially dangerous chemicals for filtering water intended for human consumption, the scientists say. 

They want to commercialise a new, plant-based water filtering method so microplastics can be removed from water on an industrial scale - enabling cleaner and safer water for everyone to drink. 

Okra (pictured) puts a lot of foodies off due to the sticky slime that oozes out of it. Now, researchers have demonstrated that combinations of these food-grade plant extracts can remove microplastics from wastewater

Researchers tested extracts from fenugreek, cactus, aloe vera, okra, tamarind and psyllium as flocculants to capture microplastics. They tested compounds from the individual plants as well as in different combinations

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS sciencetech" data-version="2" id="mol-4e254170-ab5f-11ec-8295-a9cdb899b0c7" website from okra can remove microplastics from wastewater, study says