Promising approaches and kinetic prospects of the microbial degradation of pharmaceutical contaminants

Abstract

Pharmaceutical pollutants are released into the environment due to their direct outflow from waste disposal, animal discharge, and drug manufacturing. The long-term health effects on humans and animals due to their biological activity are the negative impacts of pharmaceutical pollutants. Microbial degradation is an effective remediation strategy for removing harmful contaminants from contaminated zones by breaking down foreign substances into smaller useable materials. The novel aspect of the review deals with the advancements and kinetic prospects of the microbial degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants. This review illustrates the classifications, toxic effects on health, occurrences and sources of pharmaceutical pollutants. The interaction mechanism between microbes and pollutants and the molecular mechanism under aerobic and anaerobic conditions are clearly demonstrated in this review. This review discusses in depth the advancements in the field of microbial degradation, such as the utilization of genetically engineered microbes and enzyme immobilization techniques for enhancing the degradation of pollutants. The purpose of this review is to describe the microbial degradation kinetics in order to efficiently supervise the pharmaceutical-contaminated sites. Recent advancements and future prospects for the effective removal of pharmaceutical contaminants are also discussed in depth.