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International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (4.14) (2018) 121-126 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper Biotransformation of Furaltadone, Furazolidone and Nitrofurazone using Aspergillus Tamarii isolate TN-7 : in Vitro Residual Identification and Quantification by HPLC-DAD N S Mohammad 1 , M I A Halim 2 , M M Mahat 3 , M F Safian 2 , Z Z Ariffin 1* 1 School of Biology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 2 School of Chemistry and Environment, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 3 School of Physics and Material Studies, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia *Corresponding author Email: drzaidah@salam.uitm.edu.my Abstract Nitrofurans (NFs) such as furaltadone (FTD), furazolidone (FZD) and nitrofurazone (NFZ) have been used as antibacterials and growth promoters for the poultry and aquaculture industry. These antibiotics have now been banned from use due to their carcinogenic properties; therefore there is an urgent need to remove or degrade NFs from contaminated areas. Aspergillus tamarii isolate TN-7 isolated from antibiotic overexposed soil shows an ability to degrade the NFs antibiotics. After 5 days of incubating of Aspergillus tamarii isolate TN-7 with 500 μg/mL NF, the residual of the NF concentration was determined by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). Solid phase extraction was performed to clean-up the fermentation broth prior to HPLC-DAD analysis. Antimicrobial of the NFs residues showed a decreased in the percentage of inhibition that FTD, FZD and NFZ were reduced to to 85.71 %, 75.86 % and 70.97 % after 96 hours of incubation. Quantification using HPLC-DAD showed, after 96 hours of incubation, Aspergillus tamarii isolate TN-7 reduced furaltadone, furazolidone and nitrofurazone to 86.73 %, 37.49 % and 29.17 % respectively. This finding shows that Aspergillus tamarii isolate TN-7 has the potential to be used as a bioremediation tool in removing NF antibiotics from the contaminated areas. Keywords: Aspergillus tamarii isolate TN-7; biotransformation; degradation; HPLC-DAD; nitrofuran. 1. Introduction This Nitrofurans (NFs) such as furaltadone (FTD), furazolidone (FZD) and nitrofurazone (NFZ) are widely used in veterinary drugs for poultry and aquaculture. NFs are also used to treat disease related to gastrointestinal tract and common disease by bacteria and protozoa by inhibiting microbial enzymes that in- volved in carbohydrate metabolism [1]. NFs have since been banned and prohibited from usage in poultry or livestock production. The U.S. Food Drug and Administration (FDA) ban imports that have NF residues in them. The European Union (EU) have banned the usage of NFs in livestock production since 1995 because of their carcinogenic and toxic effects on humans [2]. NF parent drugs are unstable and are rapidly metabolized to their metabolites (NFMs), FTD (AMOZ; 3-amino-5-morpholino- methyl-2-oxazolidinone), FZD (AOZ; 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone) and NFZ (SEM; semicarbazide). These NFMs maintain their stability when bound to tissue or protein which can cause toxic and carcinogenic effects. NFs administered on the poultry will be excreted through faeces or urine of the chickens. These will enter or will be introduced to soil environment and cause soil contamination. According to Yu et al., [3], administration of NF in aquaculture will also cause the fish to excrete the NFs or NFMs that then will enter the aquatic environment and cause antibiotic contamination. Agriculture of contaminated soil and aquatic environments exposed to these antibiotics will then take up the NFs and NFMs, which will then be transferred deleterious effects to humans. Continuous deposition of antibiotics into the environment can increase the resistance of bacteria towards these antibiotics. Thus, there is an urgent need to degrade these antibiotics that have been deposited into the environment. Aspergillus sp. is a species of fungus that can be commonly found in soil [4] that showed great potential in degrading pollutant. Aspergillus tamarii were reported to have the ability to degrade endosulfan sulfate [5] and dyes [6]. The aim of this study is to determine the ability of the Aspergillus tamarii isolate TN-7 to degrade nitrofuran antibiotics. 2. Experimental 2.1 Reagents and chemicals Analytical grade ethyl acetate (EtOAc > 99.95 %), was purchased from Bendosen, HPLC grade methanol (MeOH > 99.90 %) from Systerm, water HPLC grade was purchased from Amresco, and acetonitrile (ACN > 99.90 %) was purchased from Merck. Nitrofurans antibiotics, furaltadone (C 13 H 16 N 4 O 6 ), furazolidone (C 8 H 7 N 3 O 5 ) and nitrofurazone (C 6 H 6 N 4 O 4 ) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.