The environmental dissemination of selected antibiotics from hospital wastewater into municipal wastewater and lastly to a receiving water body was investigated. Selected antibiotics (azithromycin (AZM), ciprofloxacin (CIP), clindamycin (CDM), doxycycline (DXC) and sulfamethoxazole (SMZ)) present in effluents of academic hospital wastewater, influents, sewage sludge, and effluents of municipal wastewater, receiving water, and its benthic sediment samples were quantified using the Acquity^® Waters Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography System hyphenated with a Waters Synapt G2 coupled to a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The overall results showed that all assessed antibiotics were found in all matrices. For solid matrices, river sediment samples had elevated concentrations with mean concentrations of 34,834, 35,623, 50,913, 55,263, and 41,781 ng/g for AZM, CIP, CDM, DXC, and SMZ, respectively, whereas for liquid samples, hospital wastewater and influent of wastewater had the highest concentrations. The lowest concentrations were observed in river water, with mean concentrations of 11, 97, 15, and 123 ng/L, except for CDM, which was 18 ng/L in the effluent of wastewater. The results showed that the highest percentages of antibiotics removed was SMZ with 90%, followed by DXC, AZM and CIP with a removal efficiency of 85%, 83%, and 83%, respectively. The antibiotic that showed the lowest removal percentage was CDM with 66%. However, the calculated environmental dissemination analysis through the use of mass load calculations revealed daily release of 15,486, 14,934, 1526, 922, and 680 mg/d for SMZ, CIP, AZM, DXC, and CDM, respectively, indicating a substantial release of selected antibiotics from wastewater to the river system, where they are possibly adsorbed in the river sediment. Further research into the efficient removal of antibiotics from wastewater and the identification of antibiotic sources in river sediment is needed.

Pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) are widely prevalent environmental contaminants, with recalcitrant behaviour to conventional biodegradation processes and harmful effects to the ecosystem and human health. Hence, developing an eco-friendly cost-effective process exploring the microbial agents appeared to be promising for the treatment of PhC contaminated effluents. A consortium of the previously isolated and identified South African indigenous fungal strains, namely Aspergillus niger, Mucor circinelloides, Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Trametes polyzona and Rhizopus microspores was used in a non-sterile stirred fluidized bioreactor (NSFB) to perform the simultaneous biodegradation of selected PhCs. The degradation of the PhCs, namely carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DCF) and ibuprofen (IBP) as well as their transformation metabolite compounds was carried out using the SPE-UPLC/MS. Here are presented data with regard to the NSFB design, the effect of the concentration of carbon source on the growth of a fungal consortium in the NSFB, the fungal mycelial morphology, and the assessment of the physicochemical parameters. The data displayed the stoichiometric reactions of the transformation fragments and their mass spectrum. For better understanding of the data presented in the present paper, please refer to the original paper "Degradation of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in non-sterile stirred fluidized bioreactor driven by a fungal consortium" [1].

Biodegradation of carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac sodium (DCF) and ibuprofen (IBP) was evaluated through fungal granules development in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Fungal granules were developed in co-culture of T. polyzona, A. niger, T. longibrachiatum, M. circinelloides and R. microsporus at a retention time (RT) of 2 days and 1 day. Ligninolytic enzymes [laccase (Lac), lignin peroxidase (LiP) and manganese peroxidase (MnP)] were determined. Removal of pharmaceuticals was assessed and metabolites identified using the SPE-UPLC-QToF/MS methods. A pH range of 3–4.6 was found to improve the granulation development from day 6 and the production of ligninolytic enzymes [MnP (253.00 ± 14.19 U/L), Lac (111.58 ± 10.00 U/L) and LiP (95.25 ± 8.22 U/L)]. At steady-state, a removal of 97.41±0.25%, 99.83±0.14%, and 99.91±0.08 were achieved at an RT of 2 days for CBZ, DCF, and IBP, respectively, and of 91.94±0.05%, 99.31±0.12% and 97.72±0.23% at an RT of 1 days for the same PhCs. A variety of chemical reactions have been proposed for degradation pathways catalysed by enzyme-producing fungi, generating fragment ions of intermediate compounds. This study is highly relevant for cost-effective and environmentally friendly wastewater treatment processes in water scare countries. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT