Adsorbents prepared from waste plants for the treatment of dyeing effluents have high significance in environmental sustainability. In this research, an attempt is made to analyze the applicability of activated carbon prepared from Euphorbia antiquorum L wood by H3PO4 activation method for the removal of Acid Blue 92 dye. Various kinetic models were used for the analysis of adsorption kinetics and pseudo second-order model fits well for the selected adsorbent-adsorbate system. The moderate rate of dye uptake indicates that the rate-determining step could be physisorption in nature. Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherm models were applied for the analysis of isotherm data. The positive enthalpy of adsorption substantiates that the adsorption process is endothermic in nature. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.