Microbial Degradation of Phenolic Compounds

Human beings use various synthetic products in day-to-day life. The vigorous manufacturing process needs various chemical compounds with different functional groups. Hence, due to human activities several of such molecules (including phenol and its derivatives) were continuously present in the environmental surroundings which have been detected by advanced analytical tools. On the other hand, several reports revealed that most of these contaminants were toxic/hazardous in nature and some of them have consist carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. Hence, many of such contaminants including phenolic compounds were listed in United States Environmental Protection Agency list. For this reason, several researchers took a major step with the aim of detoxification/degradation of such contaminants by various treatment techniques (including biological methods) around the world. Considering this, here, we discuss some of these chemical contaminations and toxic effects and also their degradation/removal by microorganisms.