Abstract
The present study reports for the first time, a novel disinfection method that combines ultrasonication with a natural biocide terpinolene to inhibit tough and opportunistic antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) microorganisms isolated from hospital wastewater treatment plant (HWWTP). The enhancement of the disinfection process was evaluated for the effect of ultrasonication power, operating temperature, and inoculum size. A hybrid methodology combining terpinolene with traditional physico-chemical method of acoustic cavitation delivered efficient disinfection of the secondary effluent of field scale HWWTP, amended with a higher inoculum size of multi-drug-resistant coliform bacteria Enterobactor sp., Citrobacter freundii, and Klebsiella pneumonia. A bacterial load of 6.4 log CFU/mL was completely eliminated in 25 min. The present study also reports that due to the hybrid process, a very small concentration of 0.312 mM (0.25 × Minimum Inhibitory Concentration or MBC) of terpinolene was enough to completely disinfect the multi-drug-resistant coliforms. The leakage of intracellular nucleic acids during the disinfection process suggested disruption of cell membrane as the primary mechanism of disinfection followed by disruption of cellular metabolic function measured by respiratory chain dehydrogenase activity. Moreover, this study is the first to prove that terpinolene remained stable even after the cavitation process, thus revealing possibilities of recycling of the natural compound for wastewater disinfection. The results of the present research suggest that using terpinolene as a bio-additive can efficiently eliminate hazardous multi-drug-resistant bacteria and drastically reduce operational time and cost thus rendering it suitable to replace conventional wastewater disinfection.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (2020R1I1A305481611). The authors thank the Core Research Support Center for Natural Products and Medical Materials (CRCNM) for technical support regarding the nanoindentation test.
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This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (2020R1I1A305481611).
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AM and YA conceived the idea of the research. AM carried out the research, prepared the original draft, and edited. YA supervised, validated the experiments, reviewed, and edited the original draft.
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Mukherjee, A., Ahn, YH. Terpinolene as an enhancer for ultrasonic disinfection of multi-drug-resistant bacteria in hospital wastewater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 34500–34514 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18611-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18611-6