ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Biodegradation of Phenol by Curtobacterium
flaccumfaciens: Optimization
of Growth Conditions
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1
Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Mutah University, Mu’tah, Karak 61710, Jordan
2
Prince Faisal Center for Dead Sea, Environmental and Energy Research, Mu’tah University, Jordan
3
Mutah University, Department of Biology, Karak, Mutah 61710, Jordan
4
Pharmacological and Diagnostic Research Center (PDRC), Faculty of Pharmacy,
Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman 19328, Jordan
5
Department of Pharmacology and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Petra, Amman, Jordan
6
Department of Medical Analysis, Prince Aisha Bint AL-Hussein , Faculty of Nursing and Health Science
ALHussein Bin Talal University, Jordan
Submission date: 2021-01-08
Final revision date: 2021-04-21
Acceptance date: 2021-04-22
Online publication date: 2021-09-14
Publication date: 2021-12-02
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(6):5435-5442
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ABSTRACT
Phenol is one of the most important environmental pollutants that are found in sewage and industrial
water from which agricultural lands are irrigated. In this study Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens
bacterium was isolated in pure culture from phenol-uncontaminated farmland soil. Its ability to
biodegrade phenol was examined. C. flaccumfaciens demonstrated its ability to use phenol as a
source of carbon and energy in batch cultures. The isolated strain was able to completely biodegrade
700 mg/L phenol in a reasonable incubation period (96 h). However, these bacteria were able to
completely remove 700 mg/L of phenol in a reasonable incubation period (96 h). The degradation rate
of phenol was 19.4 ppm/h. However, they also endured higher concentrations than 1200 mg/L, but had
a lower biodegradation rate because of cytotoxicity generated by phenol concentration of more than
700 mg/L. It was observed that the biodegradation process of phenol occurred at pH 7.0 to obtain
maximum degradation of phenol by C. flaccumfaciens. In addition, the biodegradation of phenols
occurred over a large range of incubation temperature (25 to 37ºC) where 28ºC was the optimum
incubation temperature for C. flaccumfaciens cells for phenol biodegradation. Since this is, the first
study related to the use of C. flaccumfaciens in the biodegradation process of phenol, more works need
to be done, whether from a biochemical or molecular biology point of view.