Endophytic Potential of Entomopathogenic Fungi for the Remediation of Wastewater

Abstract

Phytoremediation has the potential to significantly reduce water contamination caused by excessive harmful chemicals. The degradative properties of fungi are used in fungal phytoremediation to eliminate or neutralise the hazardous pollutants present in water. The goal of the current study was to endophytize water lettuce with the two entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopilae and Trichoderma harazium. The plant is inoculated with the fungus using the root-dipping procedure. There were two main treatments and a control all with five replications. The analysis of plant and wastewater were analyzed initially like frequency of fungus remained in plant weight, root length and for water that was Biological oxygen demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen demand (COD), and heavy metals (Copper, Nickle, Zinc and Cadmium). The data were taken for 3rd 5 th and 7th day of the experiment. The results exhibit that T. harazium exhibited the 82.67 % followed by the M. anisopilae with 65.33 % as compared to control with 1.33 % mean frequency the 10th day of inoculation. Maximum weight 295.98 and 265.13 g and root length were maximum recorded 15.18 and 18.12 cm respectively at the end of the experiment. Performance of T. harazium endophytic plant found to be 90.7 % for BOD, 73.82 % for COD. The removal % of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd exhibited 75.13, 96.58, 87.14, 61.17 % after 7d of treatment. In case of M. anisopilae, 85.2 % for BOD, 69.38 % for COD. The removal % of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd exhibited 66.48, 89.43, 77.42, 52.4 % after 7d of treatment. The treatments exhibited the remarkable reduction in pollutants and increase in plant weight and root length.

Keywords

• phytoremediation
• myco-remediation
• water lettuce
• wastewater
• contaminant.