Penicillin as a Carbon and Energy Source for Microorganisms from Crude - Oil Contaminated Soil A Novel Approach to Bioremediation

Antibiotics, including penicillin, are considered emerging pollutants due to their continuous input and persistence in the environment even at low concentrations. Thus, several techniques for the degradation and mineralization of antibiotics have been evaluated to reduce their environmental impact. The objective of this work was to search for bacterial consortia from crude oilcontaminated soils, capable of using penicillin as a carbon and energy source and/or secreting enzymatic compounds to neutralize this antibiotic. The degradation of penicillin was evaluated using the closedbottle technique, in which the bottle contained penicillin, the bacterial inoculum, and a mineral medium at a concentration of 220 ppm. The bacteria were counted, the degradation of penicillin was determined by optical density at 245 nm, and FT -IR spectroscopy was performed. At 14 days, FT -IR spectrum analyses of penicillinshowed the disappearance of peaks at 1673 cm¯¹ and 1106 cm¯¹.These results indicate that some bacteria from the oilcontaminated soil studied had developed the ability to degrade penicillin (by secreting extended spectrum βlactamases (ESBL) and metalloβlactamases (MBL)), whereas others had developed resistance to penicillin.The bacterial communities used penicillin at a rate of 54.34%.Eleven strains were isolated and identified as Pseudomonas.