Kinetics of dimethoate biodegradation in bacterial system

Abstract

The present study is an investigation on the kinetics of dimethoate biodegradation and an estimation of residual dimethoate in bacterial culture by spectrophotometry. The methylene chloride extract of the culture medium was used for determination of dimethoate through its reaction with 1 chloro-2, 4 dinitrobenzene to produce methylamine whose absorbance at 505 nm gave an estimation of dimethoate content. The dimethoate standard curve follows Beer’s law at 505 nm with a slope of 0.0129 absorbance units per µg/mL. The regression equation relating concentration of dimethoate (x) with the absorbance is (y): y = 0.037 + 0.0129x. The amount of residual dimethoate after 7 days were 0, 4, 17, 28 and 29 µg/mL; the rate constants were 0.775, 0.305, 0.225, 0.167 and 0.127 each per day, and the efficiency of dimethoate degradation were 100%, 96%, 83%, 72% and 71%, for <em>Bacillus licheniformis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aeromonas hydrophila, Proteus mirabilis </em>and <em>Bacillus pumilus</em> respectively. Dimethoate remediation could be attained through bacterial metabolism of the pesticide and colorimetric analysis might be useful in the estimation of dimethoate within a detection limit of 5-100 µg/mL.