Agricultural reuse of immobilized white rot fungal consortium treated textile effluent for improved agronomic performance and nutritional quality of Vigna radiata

Growing freshwater scarcity, with increasing discharge of wastewater from textile industries, have intensified the need for wastewater treatment and agricultural reuse. The current research assessed the reusability of biological treated synthetic textile effluent (STE), comprising anthraquinone (AQ) dyes, for irrigation of Vigna radiata . To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report a chitosan immobilized white-rot fungal consortium (WRFC) comprising Trametes cubensis , Polyporus umbellatus , Leiotrametes flavida , and Pleurotus pulmonarius for the treatment of AQ dye-containing textile effluent using batch, continuous, and fed-batch bioreactor systems. The immobilized WRFC based fed-batch bioreactor showed the highest treatment efficiency with 99.06% decolorization, and significant reductions in chemical oxygen demand (COD) (75.04%), biological oxygen demand (BOD) (96.05%), nitrate (95.38%), lead (39.47%), and cadmium (50%). The suspended and immobilized WRFC treated effluent (IWTE) was reused for irrigation of V. radiata . Plants irrigated with IWTE exhibited superior growth performance, including maximum plant height, fresh biomass, pod yield, and enhanced photosynthetic pigments. Nutritional quality of mung grains was also improved, with higher protein (28.90 g/100 g), carbohydrate (55.54 g/100 g), and energy value (343.25 Kcal/100 g) compared to plants irrigated with untreated STE. Overall, immobilized WRFC based mycoremediation demonstrated an eco-friendly and sustainable approach for textile effluent remediation and safe agricultural reuse under water scarcity conditions.