Soto Zuluaga, Adriana MaríaGil Garzón, Miriam JanetJiménez, Teresa de JesúsUsma Gutiérrez, Jorge IvánGutiérrez Flórez, Omar DaríoSánchez Sánchez, Guillermo León2011-07-122011-10-142011-07-122011-10-1420101909-0455http://hdl.handle.net/10567/90Introduction. Environmental contamination produced by the disposal of effluents from textile industries, encourages researchers to continue their search for the removal of this dyes in waste water. Objective. To compare the effect both an artchoke extract with peroxidase activity and a conventional method, hydrogen peroxide, had in the discoloration of an effluent from a textile industry. Materials and Methods. As a sample, a mixture of direct, disperse and acid dyes was used. They were all from a textile industry located in an Antioquian municiple. The artchoke´s extract and the hydrogen peroxide, and a mixture of both 1:1 were used as degradation agents. Absorbance measures were made by the use of a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Results. For the treatment of the sample with artchoke extract, peroxide and the mixture of both, there is an absorbance reduction of 21.03%, 12.32%, 22.70%, respectively, at 486 nm and of 17.13 %, 16.43%, 28.54% at 598 nm. Conclusion. The artchoke extract provides a discoloration similar to that of the hydrogen peroxide, becoming an alternative in comparison to the use of conventional methods that bring environmental problems.esContaminaciónContaminación ambientalCorporación Universitaria LasallistaÁrea Metropolitana del Valle de AburráAguas residuales industrialesTratamiento de aguas residualesArticle