Screening of factors influencing amoxicillin biodegradation by Aspergillus tamarii using fractional factorial design

Amoxicillin (AMX) is derived from semisynthetic penicillin and is known as aminopenicillin due to an extra amine group. It is commonly used against bacterial infections in both humans and animals. However, a significant amount of AMX residue is difficult to remove and will negatively affect the environment. A fractional factorial with a 24-1 design was conducted to screen the effects of initial pH, agitation speed, incubation time, and inoculum level with percentage amoxicillin biodegradation (AMX%) as a response. It was discovered that the main effects including incubation time (F = 21.00), initial pH (F = 10.94), agitation speed (F = 10.06), and inoculum size (F = 9.69) were found to be significant (p < 0.05) to the biodegradation process. The process achieved maximal biodegradation of 81.37% ± 1.61% (mean ± SE). In conclusion, the significant conditions were successfully screened, and the process was enhanced using FFD with live fungal biomass for AMX biodegradation.