Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 46150, Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 2 School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 46150, Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Electronic address: adelsuyien@yahoo.com
J Environ Manage, 2017 Dec 01;203(Pt 1):542-549.
PMID: 28693968 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.06.068

Abstract

Trichoderma asperellum (Ta) was first cultured in synthetic medium (Potato Dextrose Broth, PDB) of various concentrations (100, 75, 50, 25%). The biomass was harvested and inoculated into dye solutions (crystal violet, CV; methyl violet, MV; malachite green, MG; and cotton blue, CB). Reduced concentrations (20, 50, 75%) affected growth rate but their decolourization efficacies remained unaffected. This was attributed to similar numbers and types of functional groups (hydroxyl, amine, ester-lipid, alkane groups) found on the surface of fungal biomass, as revealed by the Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Their production of NADH-reductase for degradation, and their biosorption activities were also unaffected. In general, Ta cultured in reduced concentrations (20, 50, 75%) retained the ability to perform biosorption and biodegradation, similar to cultures from control (100% PDB). This suggested that reduced nutrient levels (as a cost-feasible strategy) could be used to cultivate biomass of Ta for dye removal activities.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.