Sulphadimethoxine and Azolla filiculoides Lam.: a model for drug remediation

Plants can be an interesting tool for in situ remediation of drug contaminated waters. In a laboratory model Azolla filiculoides Lam., an aquatic fern known to absorb pollutants, has been exposed to an environmental persistent antibiotic commonly used in intensive farming, sulphadimethoxine (S), to test its bioremediation capability. In a 5 week experiment, plants were cultivated outdoor at four drug concentrations (50, 150, 300 and 450 mg l−1) in N-free mineral medium. Drug affects growth rate (as biomass yield per week), N2-fixation, heterocyst frequency, but plants are able to survive. Notwithstanding, at all concentrations tested drug was actively removed from the medium and the accumulation in the biomass is in order of magnitude up to mg g−1 plant dry weight (1000 ppm). Drug uptake and degradation rates increase with S concentrations in the culture medium. The efficacy of the model was very high. These results demonstrated that Azolla can be taken into consideration as a tool for sulphonamides environmental monitoring and decontamination.