Table 3.

Microbial biodegradation of pharmaceuticals.

Microorganism/Consortium	Pharmaceutical	Isolated from/Source	Degradation Pathway	Degradation Intermediates (Metabolites)	Efficiency	Technique used	Reference
Trametes versicolor	clofibric acid (CLOFI, lipid regulator) and carbamazepine (CARBA, antiepileptic/analgetic)	American Type Culture Collection.	cytochrome P450 system may be involved in the first step of CLOFI and CARBA oxidation by T. versicolor	–	CLOFI (91%) and CARBA (58%)	(GC–CIRMS) NMR	(Marco-Urrea et al., 2009)
Pseudomonas sp. SA01	Phenol	samples were taken from pharmaceutical plant wastewater effluent located west of Tehran	meta-cleavage pathway.	–	isolated strain started to degrade 0.7 g/l of phenol after an initial very short lag phase, and phenol decomposition was then rapidly completed within 30 h	UV–vis SEM	(Shourian et al., 2009)
Mixed culture of Heterotrophic Bacteria	clofibric acid	mixture of soil contaminated with several herbicides, including propanil, and soil from organic rice agriculture supplemented with (NH4)2SO4 and propanil	biocatalysis and biodegradation database (BBD) software developed by the University of Minnesota (UM) was used to simulate and predict the biodegradation pathway of CLF	_-hydroxyisobutyric acid, lactic acid and 4-chlorophenol.	51% biodegradation (initial CLF concentration = 2 mg/L)	HPLC–DAD GC–MS	(Salgado et al., 2012)
Pseudomonas sp. Strain CE21 and Strain CE 22	cefalexin	Wastewater samples containing activated sludge were collected from sewage treatment plant in Hong Kong	–	2‑hydroxy-3-phenyl pyrazine	Strain CE22 was able to degrade over 90% of cefalexin, while CE21 was able to remove46.7% of cefalexin after incubation for 24 h	HPLC MS-MS	(Lin et al., 2015)
Achromobacterdenitrificans PR1	Sul-famethoxazole (SMX)	Samples of activated sludge and treated domestic wastewater collected from a wastewater treatment plant in the North of Portugal	sulfonamide was used as sole source of carbon, nitrogen andenergy	3-amino-5-methylisoxazole	Strain PR1 was able to removeSMX at a rate of 73.6 μmolSMX/gcell dry weight	DGGE HPLC–UV–vis	(Reis et al., 2014)
Labrys portucalensis strain F11	Fluoxetine (FLX)	Sediment sample collected from an industrially contaminated site in Northern Portugal	fluorobenzene (FB) was used as sole carbon and energy source	stoichiometric liberation of fluoride	2 μM of racemic FLX was completely removed of both enantiomers in 30 d	HPLC analysis	(Moreira et al., 2014)
Streptomyces MIUG 4.89	carbamazepine	Microbial Cultures Collection of the Bioaliment Research Center,‘Dunarea de Jos’ University of Galati, Romania.	extracellular laccase production thought to play role in degradation	–	35% degradation at an initial concentration of 0.2 mg/L of carbamazepine	HPLC	(Popa et al., 2014)
Ustilago sp. SMN03	Cefdinir	Wastewater was collected from a pharmaceutical industry located in Ranipet, Vellore Dist., India	Cefdinir was utilized as a sole carbon source	six novel intermediates formed	isolate was found to degrade 81% of cefdinir within 6 days and an initial cefdinir concentration of 200 mg/L	UV–vis LC-MS FTIR	(Selvi et al., 2014)
Ochrobactrumsp. Strain WX-J1	Erythromycin A(EA)	Soil contaminated by EA was collected at a site near a pharmaceutical factory, Henan, China	Strain WX-J1 can utilized EA as a sole source of carbon and energy	3-depyranosyloxy erythromycin A, 7,12-dyhydroxy-6-deoxyerythronolide B, 6-deoxyerythronolide B and propionaldehyde	when the initial Erythromycin A concentration was 100 mg/L, 97% of Erythromycin A was degraded	HPLC–(UV)-MS	(C. Zhang et al., 2017)
Citrobacter amalonaticusRashtia	Paclitaxel	samples were collected from wastewater chamber of the Sobhan oncology pharmaceutical company	The isolate utilized Paclitaxel as the sole carbon source. Aerobic degradation pathway is suggested by authors	–	87–93% efficacy under aerobic condition	HPLC	(Zamani et al., 2016)