Mycological Pollutants in Air and Phenol Utilization by Aspergillus niger

Abstract

Ambient air at the University of Ilorin was sampled mycologically at four different locations, namely: student sitting area outside computer Based Test Centre, student sitting area outside the Department of Microbiology, walk way of block 1 and walkway of block 4. This was actualized using the settling plate method by exposing the plates of Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) to air at the different points for 5 minutes. The fungal load ranged from 20,740 to 31,450 cfu/m³. Six species of fungi were isolated and identified. They are Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Geotrichum candidum, Mucor circineloides, Trichosporon mucoides and Aspergillus terreus.  Degradation of different concentrations of phenol was studied using Aspergillus niger over a period of 12 days. Biodegradation rate was read using spectrophotometer at an absorbance of 400nm. Phenol utilization took place at the different concentrations and incubation periods while the maximum phenolic utlisation occurred at day 12 for the different concentrations. For the first concentration 0.090M, maximum phenolic degradation occurred at 0.045 absorbance at day 12, while for the last concentration (0.436M), maximum phenolic degradation occurred at 0.002 at day 12. The study showed that Aspergillus niger is promising in the biodegradation of phenol.