Characterizatin of Cyanide Degrading Bacteria Isolated from Industerial Wastewater

Bacterium that utilizes cyanide compounds (e.g. potassium ferrous cyanide, sodium thiocyanate, amygdalin and formamide) as a nitrogen source was isolated from industrial wastewater of electro plating plant. The isolate could tolerate and grow in the presence of sodium cyanide in the growth medium up to 20 mM. Ammonia, formate and / or formamide were found as metabolites of cyanogenic compounds produced by the isolated bacterium. Maltose and sucrose are better than glucose when used as carbon sources by this isolate. Thus, the isolated bacterium could be survived in different wastes containing maltose or sucrose. The results indicated that, the bacterial isolate was identifiedas Escherichia coli, which can be used as a promising tool to biodegrade and detoxificatewastewaterandfoodstaffcontaining cyanogenic compounds as bitter almond. Further study is recommended.