Potential of Basidiomycetous Fungi Isolated from Gunung Barus Forest North Sumatera in Decolorization of Wastewater of Textile Industry

A study of basidiomycetous fungi in decolorization of wastewater of textile industry has been started in our laboratory. The objective of this study was to obtain potential isolates and to examine their decolorization acitity. The fungi were isolated from local forest, Gunung Barus Forest, in North Sumatera and screened their ligninolytic activity qualitatively by bavendam method and the waste was obtained from local textile industry in Medan. Nineteen fungal isolates grew on plate agar medium containing 100% of waste supplemented with 2% glucose, and 6 of those exhibited good growth when glucose in the media was reduced to 1%. Surprisingly, these six potential isolates grew, although relatively at lower rate, when glucose was not included in the media. Meanwhile, there was no substantial decolorization of media could be observed on all plates cultures. Analyses of decolorization on liquid condition containing 25% of wastewater and no glucose showed that fungal grew at the bottom culture flask. All 6 isolates exhibited decolorization activity. Interestingly, mass of mycelia growth at the bottom absorbed dyes and dissolved suspended solid which was seemingly separated from very clean solution medium surrounding. These results indicated that the cultures utilized carbon source from waste and the extracellular matrixes produced by fungal isolates might involve in decolorization of textile wastewater.