Review demonstrates microbial degradation of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater systems, highlighting consortia-based treatment challenges and scaling needs.
Key Points
To review the mechanisms, microbial agents, environmental parameters, and implementation challenges associated with microbial bioremediation of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater.
Synthesized findings on pharmaceutical degradation by single bacterial and fungal isolates, mixed microbial consortia, and microalgae–bacteria systems.
Assessed environmental operating factors and translational performance data from hospital, municipal, and pharmaceutical-manufacturing wastewaters, with specific emphasis on African regional contexts.
Specialized individual strains, including Achromobacter and white-rot fungi, effectively biotransformed target drugs such as ibuprofen and ciprofloxacin.
Multi-species microbial consortia provided complementary metabolic pathways, yielding superior degradation across complex mixtures compared to isolated strains.
Adsorption and intermediate metabolite transformation frequently reduced dissolved drug concentrations without achieving full mineral degradation, presenting a major barrier during practical wastewater scale-up.