View article

Melanoidin is the hazardous byproduct formed during the production of ethanol in distilleries. In the present study, a highly effective melanoidin decolorizing bacterial isolate, SAG₁, was isolated from the effluent enriched soil of a distillery. This strain, identified as Paracoccus pantotrophus, was highly efficient to decolorize melanoidins up to 81.2 ± 2.43% in the presence of glucose and NH₄NO₃. The effects of autoclaved as well as living cells and inoculums size on decolorization activity were investigated. The results indicated that only living cell showed the decolorization activity i.e. 78.6 ± 2.62%, while, no activity has been observed using autoclaved cells. The inoculums size of 8% v/v, showed maximum activity of 62.9 ± 3.00%. The isolate SAG₁ was found to be more efficient in decolorizing the melanoidins from distillery effluent as compared to the reference culture Pseudomonas putida.