The ability of fungus Mucor racemosus Fresenius to decompose high concentration of commercial detergent (MERIX, Henkel, Serbia) was investigated in this study. Fungus was cultivated in liquid growth medium by Czapek with addition of detergent at concentration 0.5% during 16 days. The biochemical changes of pH, redox potential, amount of free and total organic acids, and activity of alkaline phosphatase were evaluated by analysis of fermentation broth. Simultaneously, biodegradation percentage of anionic surfactant of tested detergent was confirmed by MBAS assay. At the same time, the influence of detergent on fungal growth and total dry weight biomass was determined. Detergent at concentration 0.5% influenced on decreasing of pH value and increasing of redox potential as well as increasing of free and total organic acids. Enzyme activity of alkaline phosphatase was reduced by detergent at concentration 0.5%. The fungus was decomposed about 62% of anionic surfactant during 16 day. Due to fungus was produced higher dry weight biomass (53%) in relation to control. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 43004]

The influence of detergent and its components (sodium tripolyphosphate and ethoxylated cetyloleyl alcohol) at 0.1% concentration on the enzymatic and metabolic activity of Fusarium oxysporum during exponential growth was investigated in this paper. The fungus Fusarium oxysporum was isolated from wastewater originating from households which contain detergent. The following biochemical parameters were analyzed: pH, redox potential, proteolytic activity, production of carbohydrates, free and total organic acids, proteins and total dry weight biomass. The detergent had influence on the significant decrease of redox potential, slight increase of pH and quantity of glucose and total organic acids, while the proteolytic activity was triple insensitive in relation to control. The sodium tripolyphosphate had influence on the slight decrease of pH, significant increase of redox potential and quantity of glucose and free and total organic acids, whereas the proteolytic activity was intensive only 5 th and 6 th day. The total dry weight biomass of the fungus F. oxysporum was slightly inhibited by ethoxylated alcohol, but significantly inhibited by detergent and sodium tripolyphosphate.