Dynamics of Bacterial and Fungal Degradation of Ibuprofen, a Potential Environmental Contaminant

Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication with analgesic and antipyretic properties used in the pharmaceutical sector. The rising usage of this medicine has hurt the environment, particularly aquatic life. This necessitates the use of various procedures for degrading this chemical. As aggressive chemical treatment procedures, particularly advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are marked by severe reaction conditions. Bioremediation technologies based on microbial strains appear to be a potential alternative. Bacterial biodegradation, the most common kind of biodegradation, often happens via side chain hydroxylation, whereas, various fungal extracellular enzymes rely on oxidation of ibuprofen and subsequent breakdown into less toxic metabolites. This review provides an extensive overview of different microbial degradation techniques for a sustainable way of Ibuprofen degradation.