Bioremediation of malathion in soil by mixed Bacillus culture

Degradation of a pesticide, malathion, in soil by Bacillus sp has been reported during current study. A simple and highly sensitive reverse phase HPLC-UV (High pressure liquid chromatography-Ultraviolet) method was used for determination of malathion degradation in soil. The bioremediation of was performed in malathion contaminated sterile and nonsterile soil and it was found that 84.81% and 74.11% of malaoxon, respectively, from malathion concentration of 1.5% kg-1 soil was degraded by strain PU after 7 days. Similarly, 63.31% and 57.14% of malaoxon in sterile and nonsterile soil respectively, from malathion concentration of 1.5% kg-1 soil was degraded by strain KB2 after 7 days. Bioremediation of malathion in soil using strain KB1 have already discussed in the previous study (Singh et al., 2012). Regardless of soil sterilization, incorporation of bacterial strain in malathion containing soil resulted in higher level of degradation of malathion. Bioremediation of malathion in soil was maximum for mixed culture of all three strains.