Fate of ibuprofen under optimized batch biodegradation experiments using Micrococcus yunnanensis isolated from pharmaceutical sludge

• DOI: 10.1007/s13762-019-02400-9
• Publication Date: 2019-05-14T02:52:07Z
• Authors: K. Sharma; G. Kaushik; N. Thotakura; K. Raza; N. Sharma; S. Nimesh
• Keywords: 0211 other engineering and technologies; 02 engineering and technology; 6. Clean water; 3. Good health

Ibuprofen, a frequently prescribed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is a common environmental pollutant, and its increasing concentration in the environment leads to serious impacts. This concern has demanded a holistic scientific approach for the removal of pharmaceuticals and their by-products from the environment. Microbial degradation is an eco-friendly technique known to degrade complex molecules to simpler forms. The present study focuses on isolating the most potential bacterial strain from pharmaceutical industry site and investigates the biodegradation of ibuprofen. Among six isolated strains, one isolate KGP04 was identified as Micrococcus yunnanensis (GenBank: MG 493238), which exhibited the highest potential to degrade (~ 41.57%) ibuprofen before optimization. Taguchi-based L8 orthogonal array was used to optimize process parameters which improved the degradation rate by 83.50%. Drug concentration was reduced by 90.37% at optimum conditions (carbon 0.15%, nitrogen 0.1%, pH 7, inoculum size 2% (w/v), rpm 150, 12 h, 25 °C), as revealed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Q-time of flight mass spectrometry demonstrated the ibuprofen degradation pathway followed by the strain resulting in various transformative products. Further, the effect of ibuprofen on human embryonic kidney 293 cells was also analyzed through the Alamar Blue assay, which exhibited lower toxicity on the cells treated with the degraded samples. These results indicate that the strain is a capable candidate for the degradation of pharmaceuticals and optimized conditions can be employed to remove the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and similar agents in a greener and economic manner from the pharmaceutical effluents.