Mango peel could be used to break down oil sludge, according to new research.

University of South Australia researcher Biruck Desalegn Yirsaw has proven an extract of the fruit's peel can be used to "synthesise" the material that can break down contaminated soil.

Currently, boron hydride is used to fuse the material that can break down oil, or the soil is left contaminated.

Dr Yirsaw said the new plant-based nanoparticles he created using dried, crushed, boiled and filtered mango peel mixed with iron chloride could combine a more efficient material that could remove 90 per cent of toxins from soil.

"It's not yet tried in the field but we used a field sample in the bench study and it showed more effect than the commercially available one," Dr Yirsaw said.

The same material that is synthesised by mango peel extract also removed 99 per cent of the toxic form of chromium from contaminated water.

Dr Yirsaw said the discovery presented a sustainable, green solution for cleaning up oil pollution.

"We need to make all technologies more friendly to the environment with less implications on the ecology of the environment and also at the production level," he said.

Exact processes and benefits of using mango peel unclear. Mangoes are high in iron, but Dr Yirsaw said it was still not known exactly which biomolecules were involved in breaking down oil.

"It shows that potential where we can focus more to identify or know the more specific biomolecules that are engaged in the synthesis of the nanoparticles," he said.

It was also unclear if the new process would be more environmentally friendly than using boron hydride, but usually biology was safer than chemistry, Dr Yirsaw said.

The process would also make use of wasted mango peel.

However, Australian Mango Industry Association chief executive Robert Gray said 95 per cent of Australian mangoes were sold as whole fruit rather than in products such as yoghurt or drinks where the peel was removed.

"The mango industry would certainly support the development of uses of mango by-product that may come from processing mangoes," he said.
The mango season has just started, with the first of the fruit arriving on shelves from the Northern Territory.