E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Janardhanan S Rajan

Fateme Sima Sariaslani

Richard E Perkins

Nitrogen-containing phenol compounds are biodegradable by a consortium of microorganisms. The consortium was isolated from waste sludge by successive subculturing into medium containing picric acid as the only carbon source. During the period of degradation, picric acid was seen to degrade to a colored intermediate which later disappeared. UV-Vis spectrometry, HPLC and GC-mass spectrophotometry showed that the entire ring structure was eventually destroyed. The consortium contains microorganisms from the genera Arthrobacter, Avrobacterium and Pseudomonas.

Microbially mediated degradation of nitrogen-containing phenol compounds

The invention relates to Arthrobacter bacterial isolates capable of degrading picric acid and related compounds to the point where no aromatic ring-containing degradation products can be detected, as determined by HPLC profiles, UV-V spectrometry, analysis of total organic carbon and mineralization of .sup.14 C-picric acid. The isolates were derived from enrichments of bacterial cultures from waste sludge by successive subculturing into medium containing picric acid as the only carbon source.

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Newark, DE, United States of America

Janardhanan S Rajan