Acrylamide is a synthetic monomer that has been classified as toxic and carcinogenic apart
from its diverse application in the industry. Its application is in the formation of
polyacrylamide. Polyacrylamide usage is diverse and is found as herbicide formulation, as soil
treatment agent and in water treatment plants. Deaths and sickness due to the accidental
exposure to acrylamide have been reported while chronic toxicity is also a source of the
problem. This review highlighted the toxic effect of acrylamide to various organisms like
human, animal and plant. This review also discusses on the potential use of biological
technologies to remediate acrylamide pollution in the environment and the degradation
pathways these microorganisms utilize to assimilate acrylamide as a nitrogen, carbon or both as
carbon and nitrogen sources.
Contamination of organic xenobiotic pollutants and heavy metals in a contaminated site allows
the use of multiple bacterial degraders or bacteria with the ability to detoxify numerous toxicants
at the same time. A previously isolated SDS- degrading bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii
strain Serdang 1 was shown to reduce molybdenum to molybdenum-blue. The bacterium works
optimally at pH 6.5, the temperature range between 25 and 34°C with glucose serves as the best
electron donor for molybdate reduction. This bacterium required additional concentration of
phosphate at 5.0 mM and molybdate between 15 and 25 mM. The absorption spectrum of the
molybdenum blue obtained is similar to the molybdenum blue from other earlier reported
molybdate reducing bacteria, as it resembles a reduced phosphomolybdate closely. Ag(i), As(v),
Pb(ii) and Cu(ii) inhibited molybdenum reduction by 57.3, 36.8, 27.7 and 10.9%, respectively, at
1 p.p.m. Acrylamide was efficiently shown to support molybdenum reduction at a lower
efficiency than glucose. Phenol, acrylamide and propionamide could support the growth of this
bacterium independently of molybdenum reduction. This bacterium capability to detoxify several
toxicants is an important tool for bioremediation in the tropical region.