Toxicity of Diclofenac and its Biotransformation by Raoultella sp. DD4

In recent years the increased consumption of diclofenac, a biologically active compound that is toxic to organisms and persistent to biodegradation, has resulted in its presence in the environment.This is the first report on the biotransformation of diclofenac by a pure bacterial strain, Raoultella sp.DD4, which is able to transform 0.6 mg/L of diclofenac in 28 days.Additionally, strain DD4 is more resistant to diclofenac than other tested organisms.The estimated value for EC50 for this strain is 1.95 g/L.This is approximately five-fold higher than the value of microbial toxic concentration MTC avg (0.416 g/L).Moreover, genotoxicity studies have indicated that diclofenac is not a mutagenic compound.