Biodegradation of hydroquinone compound in pharmaceutical wastewater using the Penicillium citrinum AUMC14751 isolate

Document Type : Original Research Articles.

Authors

1 Upper Egypt Pharmaceuticals Company, Industrial zone, Arab El Awamer, Assiut, Egypt

2 Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University

3 Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Beni-Suef University, 6251, Egypt

Abstract

Hydroquinone compounds are the most common pollutant in pharmaceutical and industrials wastewater and these have  been known as health risks to human and aquatic organisms even at low concentrations.  Hydroquinone is toxic for aquatic organisms at the concentration level of 4ppm/L. Therefore, it is very important to remove hydroquinone from contaminated water before discharge into any natural water. The present study focused on the isolation of fungi from samples collected from different location in the hydroquinone production. Surveying the fungal species showed that 49 out of 432 samples (11.3%) were positive for fungal growth given three genera of fungi (Aspergillus sp, Penicillium sp, and Fusarium sp). The collected samples were enriched in sterile Minimal Salt Medium (MSM). Hydroquinone used as the sole carbon source. Fungal growth was screened to determine their ability to grow and degrade Hydroquinone at 500 ppm concentration. A total of 15 isolates that have the capability to growth in MSM supplemented with hydroquinone were selected to identify at Mycological Center, Assiut University. The results demonstrate that the genus of Aspergillus was the most predominant being represented by 40 % of all fungal isolates, followed by Penicillium species 33 % and Fusarium species 27 %. Out of these 15 isolates, Penicillium citrinum AUMC14751 was selected to determination the biodegradation rate of hydroquinone by HPLC analysis. The rate of hydroquinone degradation due to the fungal consumption of hydroquinone as a sole carbon source was increased gradually depending on the time.  HPLC results indicated that the rate began gradually increased in the presence of isolate of P. citrinum AUMC14751 starting from 0.63% after the second day up to the tenth day. The maximum percentages of the hydroquinone degradation rate appeared after 10 days at 97.02%.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Egyptian Sugar Journal
Volume 17, Issue 17
December 2021
Pages 41-61

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics