Abstract

                                Studies were conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to examine the growth and carbofuran degradation potential of bacterial isolates viz., CF-1, CF-2, CF-3, CF-4 and CF-7. Among them CF-7 recorded highly significant growth in carbofuran amended Mineral Salt Medium exhibiting an optical density of 0.557 at 600 nm after 48 h of incubation, which was followed by CF-1 (0.395), CF-4 (0.252), CF-3 (0.210) and CF-2 (0.197). In the recovery study, mean recoveries of carbofuran in MSM were 81.25, 87.36 and 83.96 per cent, respectively for the three fortification levels viz., 0.25, 0.5 and 1 ppm. The highest reduction in carbofuran concentration was recorded in MSM inoculated with CF-7 (reduced to 17.71 % as compared to 50.25 % in the control).

Key words : Bacterial isolates, Carbofuran degradation potential.