DEGRADATION OF CRYSTAL VIOLET BY BACILLUS-SUBTILIS

Crystal Violet (BV3), a typical triphenylmethane dye, was degraded by growing cells of Bacillus subtilis IFO 13719 in 802 medium, although their growth was inhibited at an initial stage of incubation. The compound was degraded at a low concentration below 7 x 10(-6) mol dm-3 which brought about the inhibition of the growth The major degradation product of BV3 was extracted with benzene from the reaction mixture and identified as 4,4'-bis(dimethylamino)benzophenone (Michler's keton; MK) by GC-MS. In addition to BV3, two other triphenylmethane dyes (Para rosaniline and Victoria blue) were shown to be degraded by growing cells of B. subtilis IFO 13719.