Candida palmioleophila Carba14 is capable of degrading carbamazepine

Carbamazepine is considered as an emerging pollutant since in aquatic environments is toxic for fish and difficult to degrade. The goal of this study was to isolate yeasts capable of degrading carbamazepine. A hospital wastewater sample was used as an inoculant to carry out three successive transfers in minimal mineral medium added with 50 mg L-1 of carbamazepine. The isolates were characterized by colonial and microscopic morphology. A yeast was identified by sequencing its ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 intergenic region and by constructing of a phylogenetic tree. A kinetics of carbamazepine degradation was done with an initial concentration of 150 mg L-1 and the residual drug was determined by HPLC-UV. A total of 12 isolates were obtained, one of them had the characteristics of yeast (Carba14), the others were bacteria. Yeast isolate Carba 14 grew at all concentrations of carbamazepine tested (50, 100, 150 and 200 mg L-1) and grew better than bacterial isolates. This isolate degraded carbamazepine with an efficiency of 30% within 25 days. Yeast isolate Carba 14 was identified as Candida palmioleophila Carba 14. Our study shows for the first time the isolation of C. palmioleophila Carba 14 with potential to degrade carbamazepine.