International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 6 (2013) pp. 97-105

Degradation of Pentachlorophenol by a bacterial consortia and the effect of cured soil on Phaseolus mungo L.

S. Logakanthi1* , P. Arulazhagan2 and N.Vasudevan1

1Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai, India 2Centre of Excellence in Environmental Studies, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. *Corresponding author e-mail: logakanthi@gmail.com

A B S T R A C T

Chlorophenols are quite persistent in the environment causing serious pollution problems to surface and subsurface environments. In the present study, experiments were carried out in glass troughs with lower (0.075 %) and higher (0.15%) concentrations of pentachlorophenol (PCP). Biodegradation of PCP by the bacterial consortium in 50 days was evaluated. The treatment efficiency was measured in terms of reduction in PCP and phenolic carbon content. At low concentration of PCP (0.075 %), degradation was 62%, whereas, the degradation was found to be 43 and 42% for higher concentrations of PCP (0.15%) undergoing treatment in the presence and absence of nutrients. During the treatment period, the bacterial consortia utilized PCP as a substrate for growth, which resulted in the steady decrease of carbon content. Carbon utilization was found to be higher for low PCP (0.075%) than for higher concentration (0.15%). The treatment efficiency was measured in terms of the effect of treated samples on plant species Phaseolus mungo. The germination study shows that, the units treated by microbial consortium resulted in 100, 93 and 96% germination indicating the efficiency of the treatment.

Keywords

Biodegradation; Pentachlorophe nol (PCP); Bacterial consortia; Pseudomonas; Phaseolus mungo L