Results
Title

Oxidation of pharmaceutically active compounds by a ligninolytic fungal peroxidase.

Authors

Eibes, Gemma; Debernardi, Gianfranco; Feijoo, Gumersindo; Moreira, M. Teresa; Lema, Juan M.

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are an important group of emerging pollutants with increasing interest due to their rising consumption and the evidence for ecotoxicological effects associated to trace amounts in aquatic environments. In this paper, we assessed the potential degradation of a series of pharmaceuticals: antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole), antidepressives (citalopram hydrobromide and fluoxetine hydrochloride), antiepileptics (carbamazepine), anti-inflammatory drugs (diclofenac and naproxen) and estrogen hormones (estrone, 17β-estradiol, 17α-ethinylestradiol) by means of a versatile peroxidase (VP) from the ligninolytic fungus Bjerkandera adusta. The effects of the reaction conditions: VP activity, organic acid concentration and HO addition rate, on the kinetics of the VP based oxidation system were evaluated. Diclofenac and estrogens were completely degraded after only 5-25 min even with a very low VP activity (10 U l). High degradation percentages (80%) were achieved for sulfamethoxazole and naproxen. Low or undetectable removal yields were observed for citalopram (up to 18%), fluoxetine (lower than 10%) and carbamazepine (not degraded).

Subjects

DRUGS; PEROXIDASE; SULFAMETHOXAZOLE; CARBAMAZEPINE; DICLOFENAC; NAPROXEN

Publication

Biodegradation, 2011, Vol 22, Issue 3, p539

ISSN

0923-9820

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s10532-010-9426-0