Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology Research Scholars Research Library J. Microbiol. Biotech. Res., 2014, 4 (4):62-65 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN : 2231 –3168 CODEN (USA) : JMBRB4 62 Available online at www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com Decolorization potential of Aspergillus awamori (MTCC-548) against skin irritating Eosin yellow dye Naresh Kumar and Sukhvinder Singh Purewal Department of Biotechnology, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, Haryana, India _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT This study was done to evaluate decolorization potential of Aspergillus awamori (MTCC-548) against skin irritating Eosin yellow dye. The fungus was grown on Czapak agar medium and decolorization potential was observed by inoculating Czapak broth medium containing dye with fungus for 10 days at 25±2 0 C. Czapak broth medium was put under shaking conditions for 3 days and 40% decolorization was found. Then medium was incubated under static conditions for 7 days. On 4 th day, 60% decolorization was found. Maximum decolorization was found on 10 th day i.e. 92%. Results clearly showed decolorization potential of Aspergillus awamori (MTCC-548) against Eosin yellow dye. By incubating fungus under shaking followed by static conditions, results could be enhanced. Key Words: Aspergillus awamori (MTCC-548), decolorization, fungus, eosin yellow, fungus. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Dyes are widely used in the many industries such as textile, rubber, plastic and cosmetic [1]. These industries release of thousands of dyes into the environment which affect the environment [2]. Almost 10,000 different dyes and their pigments are used in industries and more than 7×10 5 tons of these dyes are produced worldwide annually [3]. These dyes do not bind completely to the fabric and their loss in wastewaters could vary from 2 to as high as 50% for reactive dyes [4]. The release of colored wastewaters in the ecosystem is a remarkable source of pollution, eutrophication and perturbation in aquatic life [5]. The decolorization of textile waste water is still a major environmental concern because of synthetic dyes are difficult to be removed by conventional treatment systems [6- 8]. Various physicochemical techniques have been exploited by researchers to remove these toxic compounds from wastewaters containing dye. These techniques have certain serious disadvantages as lot of chemicals required which further create problem, highly expensive requirement of plants and lack of effective color removal [9-11]. Bioremediation is alternative in terms of cost effectiveness and have no harmful effect on environment [12]. Various microorganisms comprising filamentous fungi, bacteria, algae, yeasts and higher plants have been able to degrade these dyes. Out of these, results of fungi have proved very promising. Basidiomycetes have been used in most biodegradation studies because of their lignin-degrading enzymes such as peroxidases and laccase [13]. Fungi remove dye mainly by biosorption [14-16]. Keeping in view importance of fungi, decolorization potential of Aspergillus awamori (MTCC-548) on skin irritating dye Eosin yellow was studied.