Eco. Env. & Cons. 25 (4) : 2019; pp. (1532-1535) Copyright@ EM International ISSN 0971–765X *Corresponding author’s email : akadmah@gmail.com Possibilities of fungal biodegradation of antimalarial and anticancer primaquine in the environment Igor A. Parshikov 1 and Evgeny I. Zaraisky 1 1 Institute of Applied Mechanics, RAS, Moscow, Russia 125040 (Received 29 May, 2019; accepted 11 July, 2019) ABSTRACT After human and veterinary therapy primaquine is not completely removed at municipal wastewater treatment plants and therefore are discharged into the environment. We studied changes of the structure of primaquine by fungus Beauveria bassiana widely present in nature. Two peaks of metabolites were observed by HPLC in extract of incubation mixture. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra and electrospray ionization mass spectra analysis of the products confirmed the formation of N-acetylprimaquine, 24.5% of total extract peak area at 265 nm and N-formylprimaquine, 2.8% of total extract peak area at 265 nm. Key words : Biodegradation, Acetylation, Formylation, Beauveria bassiana Introduction Primaquine is 8-aminoquinoline drug has been used against malarial disease (Graves et al., 2018; Parshikov et al., 2018a) for over 50 years. Recently, primaquine has also been used for the treatment of cancer (Choi et al., 2016). Primaquine, obtained after the therapy of hu- mans and animals, is not completely removed at the treatment plant and, therefore, is discharged into the wastewater (Heberer, 2002). Wastewater treat- ment processes were often not designed for remov- ing compounds from wastewater (Kolpin et al., 2002). Organic waste can turn into new and more resistant compounds that can be released in addi- tion to the original. Many researches were dedicated to bioconver- sions of primaquine for studies of pathways of transformations this drug in living organisms and by microorganisms. Different metabolites of primaquine are pro- duced during metabolism in animals and humans. The widespread metabolite in living organisms and in microorganisms cells is carboxyprimaquine (Hufford et al., 1983). Another isolated major micro- bial metabolite of primaquine is N-acetyl derivative (Hufford et al., 1983). This metabolite is produced by almost all species of Streptomyces. Other ways of primaquine transformation in living organisms are desalkylation, formation of N-hydroxyderivatives, 5- and 6-hydroxyderivatives and 6-metoxy-8- hydroxyaminoquinoline etc (Vale et al., 2009). We have investigated the transformation of pri- maquine by the fungus Beauveria bassiana. This fun- gus widely present in nature and was capable for transforming many organic compounds (Parshikov et al., 2002). So that fungus may be used as model for biodegradation of primaquine in wastewaters. Materials and Methods Strain Beauveria bassiana ATCC 7159 was obtained from American Typical Cultures Collection. Stock cultures were maintained on agar slants. The spores were washed from the surface of the agar with 5 mL of sterilized water and transported