Fungi-Mediated Detoxification of Heavy Metals

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is one of the major environmental problems today. Therefore, the elimination of heavy metal ions from wastewater is important to protect public health. The use of biological material in the removal and recovery of toxic metals from industrial wastes has gained important credibility during recent years. Several microorganisms including bacteria, algae, yeast, and fungi have been reported to effectively accumulate or adsorb heavy metals through biosorption. Fungal biomaterial has been proved to be efficient as a biosorbent. High percentage of the cell wall material and availability of fungal biomass as a by-product of various antibiotic and food industries makes it an obvious choice. Thus, the chapter deals with detoxification of heavy metals from contaminated sources using biomaterials with special reference to fungi.