International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 2017; 2(4): 176-180 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijmb doi: 10.11648/j.ijmb.20170204.15 Cyanide and Macro-Nutrients Content of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Biomass Cultured in Cassava Mill Effluents Sylvester Chibueze Izah * , Sunday Etim Bassey, Elijah Ige Ohimain Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Nigeria Email address: chivestizah@gmail.com (S. C. Izah) * Corresponding author To cite this article: Sylvester Chibueze Izah, Sunday Etim Bassey, Elijah Ige Ohimain. Cyanide and Macro-Nutrients Content of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Biomass Cultured in Cassava Mill Effluents. International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2017, pp. 176-180. doi: 10.11648/j.ijmb.20170204.15 Received: September 28, 2017; Accepted: October 26, 2017; Published: November 20, 2017 Abstract: This study investigated the cyanide and some macro nutrient contents of Saccharomyces cerevisiae biomass cultured in cassava mill effluents. The S. cerevisiae biomass produced was filtered and washed with distilled water and then re- filtered. The resultant sludge/biomass recovered were oven dried. The cyanide and macro nutrient contents were analyzed. The results of the macro nutrients were 331.67 mg/kg (Calcium), 679.30 mg/kg (Magnesium), 22075.30mg/kg (Potassium) and 215.04mg/kg (Sodium). The cyanide content was 0.055mg/100g, being lower than dietary cyanide limits for animal feed. The cyanide and macro nutrient suggests potential suitability of S. cerevisiae biomass cultured in cassava mill effluents for animal feed. Keywords: Animal Feed, Biotechnology, Cyanide, Cassava Mill Effluents 1. Introduction Wastes are generated from several processing and manufacturing sectors. Wastes produced are mainly solid, liquid (effluents) and gaseous emissions. The type of wastes depends on the processing/manufacturing activities being carried out. According to Chinyere et al. [1], agricultural, industrial, municipal and nuclear wastes are the major class of wastes. Food processing is one of the sectors that generate large waste streams. In developing country like Nigeria, most wastes resulting from food processing are discharged into the environment with little or no treatment especially by smallholder processors. Inadequate management of wastes often led to environmental pollution (viz: soil, water and air). Nigeria is the world largest producer of cassava [2 – 9]. Cassava processing is a major source of livelihood to several families especially in Southern Nigeria. Cassava processing enterprise is dominated by smallholder accounting for about 80% of the entire sector [4]. During processing, cassava mill effluents, gaseous emissions and solid wastes are generated [3, 10]. Specifically, the liquid wastes are discharge into the processing environment such as soil. It also drains to the nearby pit, drainage system and/ or surface water. Authors have variously reported the effect of cassava mill effluent on the environment (soil and surface water) and the resultant effect on biodiversity such as domestic animals (sheep and goat) [10, 11], fisheries [12, 13] and plant growth and productivity [2, 10, 14-16]. Heavy metals, cyanide, ions viz: cations (such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium) and anions such as phosphate, sulphate, nitrate etc) are some of the chemical constituent of cassava mill effluents. Attempt has been made to treat the effluent using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and results showed a decline in some of the heavy metals contents [4]. Studies have also indicated that when S. cerevisiae is used for the treatment of industrial effluent some of the physicochemical [5, 17, 18] and heavy metals characteristics are improved [4]. During fermentation of grated cassava, the cyanide content decreases. Authors have variously reported that decline in cyanide content of cassava is a function of time and microbial biomass [19 – 22]. During fermentation, different microbial isolates have varying effect on the cyanide content of cassava [19, 20]. This principle may be applicable to the resultant effluent generated during the processing of cassava tuber into finished products such as gari. Previous study work have focused on the heavy metals