Biodegradation of tannic acid byCitrobacter freundii isolated from a tannery effluent

Abstract

A bacterial strain capable of utilizing tannic acid as sole carbon source was isolated from the effluent of a tannery and was identified as Citrobacter freundii. This organism could grow at concentrations as high as 5% (w/v) of tannic acid and produced extracellular tannase to hydrolyze the same. When grown in minimal medium containing 1% tannic acid (w/v) at 30 °C, this strain produced 1.87 U/ml of tannase at 6 h. At that time, tannic acid degradation products, namely glucose and gallic acid, were detectable in the culture filtrate; the other intermediate metabolites formed were pyrogallol (extra-cellular) and pyruvate (intracellular). 2-hydroxymuconic acid is presumed to form as a result of ortho-cleavage of pyrogallol. The proposed biochemical pathway for the degradation of tannic acid by Citrobacter freundii is: Tannic acid → [Glucose + Gallic acid] → Pyrogallol → 2-hydroxymuco-nic acid → [?] → Pyruvate.