Olive oil mill wastewaters: Phenolic content characterization during degradation by Coriolopsis gallica

• Decolorization and dephenolization of polyphenolic compounds (PC) by Coriolopsis gallica culture.
• Qualitative and quantitative characterization of the phenolic fraction in OMW over the biodegradation process.
• HPLC–ESI–TOF–MS has been developed to characterize the PC in untreated and treated OMW.

Olive mill wastewaters (OMW) pose a serious environmental concern owing to high polyphenol content. Decolorization and degradation of phenolic compounds (PC) by Coriolopsis gallica was demonstrated in our laboratory as a potential biotreatment of OMW in solid and liquid media. High performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to analyze the evolution of the main phenolic compounds during the C. gallica biodegradation process. Amongst total the compounds characterized in methanolic extracts of OMW, 12 were unknown, 15 were from different polyphenolic families, and 27 were other non-phenolic compounds. The evolution of PC content during the degradation process indicated that, despite the complexity of the OMW phenolic fraction, C. gallica was able to grow on OMW-based media using PC as sources of carbon and energy, particularly acids, alcohols, lignans and flavones. Complete dephenolization of OMW was obtained.

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