African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (22), pp. 2555-2558, 19 November 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Effect of pretreatment on Cd²⁺ biosorption by mycelial biomass of Pleurotus florida

Das, N.*, Charumathi,  D. and Vimala, R.

School of Biotechnology, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore- 632014, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: nilanjana00@lycos.com.

Accepted 18 October, 2007

The effect of pretreatment on the Cd²⁺ biosorption capacity of mycelial biomass of Pleurotus florida was investigated. For this purpose, the biomass was subjected to physical treatments such as heat, autoclaving and freeze drying and chemical treatments using acids, alkali and organic solvents. All the pretreatment methods improved the biosorption of Cd²⁺ in comparison with live biomass of P. florida. Among physical treatments, freeze drying showed significant improvement in Cd²⁺ sorption capacity. Pretreatment of biomass with NaOH showed maximum cadmium biosorption followed by formaldehyde and methanol treatment.

Key words: Pleurotus, pretreatment, biomass, biosorption, cadmium.