Studies on Characteristics of Mycelium from Biopharmaceutical Industry

Mycelium is a kind of residue which is filtrated and extracted from the microbial fermentation process in the pharmaceutical industry. Some samples of mycelium were taken from North China Pharmaceutical Factory. In order to investigate their physical and chemical characteristics, with the gravimetric method, atomic absorption, K₂SiF₆ volumetric method, EDTA volumetric method, copper titration method and High Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC) analyses, elementary analytical instrument(Vario EL CUBE) were employed to identify varied substance and elements in the samples .The results show that the moisture content is 69.43% -81.53% , the content of volatile substance is 90.75- 91.86%, and the ash content is 8.14-9.05% in mycelium. The contents of six kinds of heavy metal (Pb, Cr⁶⁺, Cd, and Zn, As, Ni) in Penicillin mycelium are lower than the standard in China (GB4284-84). The mycelium is equipped with the characteristic of high carbon (44.08% & 41.36%) and oxygen (32.84% &33.98%). The total inorganic matter content such as SiO₂, MgO, Fe₂O₃, CaO and Al₂O₃ in the sample is less than 15%. As for the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mycelium, the total content of fluoranthene and pyrenyl are higher than 100ug/kg in Penicillin mycelium. The total contents of flouoraanthene and acenaphthene in Oxytetracycline mycelium are higher than 100 ug/kg. Benzo [a] anthracene, fluoranthene and benzo [a], fluoranthene and benzo [k] and dibenzanthracene [a] belong to the catorgory of carcinogenic material. Benzo[a]pyrene is a class of important pollutants with direct mutagenicity in mycelium. The contents are lower than 0.1% under the content of poisonous substance specified in Identification standards of Hazardous solid waste (GB 5085.6-2007)