European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A STUDY ON MICROBIAL DIVERSITY AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERISATION OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY EFFLUENT

S. Senthil Kumar, H. V. Anil Kumar, V. Ramamurthy* and S. Raveendran

ABSTRACT

Pollution has arisen as a serious environmental concern to the present world after industrialization of human societies. It has severely affected our air, soil and water sources. Looking to its global, national, regional and local dimensions, it is now imperative to check it at each and every level. In the present study, effluent on the microbial diversity viz. bacteria, fungi and cyanobacteria. Results of one year ecological study revealed that altogether 10 species of bacteria, 11 species of fungi and 20 species of cyanobacteria were isolated from the effluent stream. The species isolated, Pseudomonas with two species and others with single each were recorded. Among the fungi recorded the Aspergillus was found to be dominant with four species viz., A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. luchensis and A. niger. Altogether 20 species of cyanobacteria belonging to ten genera were collected from the effluent stream. Among the genera, Oscillatoria dominated the effluent with seven species followed by Phormidium, Lyngbya, Nostoc and Anabaena with 2 each species and Synechococcus elongates, Gleocapsa pleurocapsoides, Plectonema radiosum, Chroococcus minutes and Fischerella ambigua with single species each. Higher amounts of phosphates and nitrates with sufficient amount of oxidizable organic matter, limited dissolved oxygen content and slightly alkaline pH were probably the factors favoring the growth of microbes especially cyanobacteria. The utilization of dominant species of cyanobacteria to monitor pollution in detergent effluent has been discussed.

Keywords: Textile industry effluent, bacteria, fungi, cyanobacteria.