Degradation of nitroesters by plant tissue cultures.
Nitrate esters are widely used as effective explosives, important components of explosive ranges, and energetic plasticizers. The environmental problem arising from the production and use of these compounds can be solved using biotechnology. Phytoremediation appears as an efficient technology for this purpose. The uptake and transformation of nitroglycerine (NG) and ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN) from wastewater by plants using in vitro regenerants of Juncus inflexus and Phragmites australis were investigated. The plants were exposed to the NG, (600 mg l(-1)), the parent compound disappeared during 20 days and degradation products as dinitroglycerine (DNG) and mononitroglycerine (MNG) were identified in the medium. During 20 days the starting concentration of 100 mg l(-1) EGDN disappeared in the case of J. inflexus or decreased to 5% in the case of P. australis. Ethylene glycol mononitrate as the degradation product was identified. Using this approach directly to the wastewater from production of explosives, the starting concentration of nitroesters mixture (total concentration 270 mg l(-1)) was decreased by in vitro regenerants of reed (P. australis) during 6 weeks to the water contained only MNG (48 mg l(-1)).
Podlipná
Radka
R
Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, v.v.i., and Research Institute of Crop Production, v.v.i., Rozvojová 263, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
Fialová
Zuzana
Z
Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, v.v.i., and Research Institute of Crop Production, v.v.i., Rozvojová 263, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
Vaněk
Tomáš
T
Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, v.v.i., and Research Institute of Crop Production, v.v.i., Rozvojová 263, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic. Electronic address: vanek@ueb.cas.cz.
D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods; D004952:Esters / Q000378:metabolism*; D017672:Nitrogen Compounds / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*
D004952:Esters; D017672:Nitrogen Compounds