Studies on Biodegradation of Acetaminophen by Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis NCIB 3610(T)

Abstract

Acetaminophen (paracetamol) has been classified as one of the emerging organic pollutants due to its entrance into the water bodies. Removal of pharma micropollutants using microorganisms or synthetic systems from the environment is desirable. In this study, acetaminophen degrading microorganism was isolated from Pharmaceutical industrial wastewater. Identification of the isolate was carried out using morphological, biochemical, and 16s rRNA sequencing. Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis NCIB 3610(T) showed 73.2% degradation of paracetamol (2500 ppm) based on colorimetric and reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography analysis. Based on the Computer Assisted Kinetic Evaluation (CAKE) program, it can be concluded that the strain exhibits Simple first -order model (SFO). The degradative product was identified as 4-aminophenol based on High Resolution Mass Spectrometry method. The chemotaxis assay reported that the strain understudy was found to be suitable for the bioaugmentation purposes.