Preliminary study on enzymatic degradation of model of pharmaceutical waste by laccase from Trametes sp

Abstract

Chemical synthesis processes of the pharmaceuticals industry produce wastewaters which are variable in character and highly strong. Disposal of waste materials such as unused drugs, pharmaceutical production facilities, hospital wastes are the origin of the pharmaceutical pollution. Laccase is a copper-containing phenol oxidase, which can oxidize electron-rich substrates of phenolic and non-phenolic origin with a concomitant reduction of oxygen to water through a radical-catalyzed reaction mechanism. Laccases are present in higher plants, fungi, bacteria and insects,and the most studied group of enzymes to date is from fungal origin, also the functions of laccases are diverse. The chemical model chosen for the study were diclofenac and ibuprofen, as it is one of the drugs that appears with the most frequency in the analyses of waste waters due to its high consumption as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic. A model sample for representative as common active materials was experimentally evaluated to assess the simple biological degradation, using crude laccase from Trametes species. Optimal results were achieved as the crude enzyme was precipitated with 60% acetone method; the specific activity was found to be 0.67 (unit/mg), and showed can be exploited for handling the reduce of hazardous pharmaceutical waste materials.