The varieties of synthetic azo dyes are widely used in textile industries to generate range of color tones in the textile and paper industries. Such textile dyes are toxic for the animals, birds and human along with environment. It is needful to remove those dyes from the effluent. The degradation of such dyes is accompanied by the involvement of dye degradating microorganisms. The purpose of this research is to isolate, identify, and screen bacterial species capable of decolorizing reactive pink, congo red, and malachite green. Soil and water samples were collected from the dye contaminated area of Jetpur, Gujarat, India. Dye degradating bacteria were isolated and selected through primary and secondary screening. The effect of yeast extract amount on the dye degradation properties of bacteria was examined using a visible spectrophotometer.
After secondary screening MD2, MD8, MD20, MD31, MD33 and MD34 were selected for further analysis. All isolated are able to degrade reactive pink, congo red, and malachite green after 120hrs of incubation at a 4mgl-1 concentration of yeast extract. Dye degradation remains constant for 4 mgl-1 and 2 mgl-1 but gets reduced in 1 mgl-1 of yeast extract concentration. Wheat germination rate in control was 65% compared to 96%, 88%, and 85% in MD2, MD8, MD20 respectively. Sorghum germination rate in control was 62% while in isolates no MD31, MD33, MD34 were 96%, 87%, 83% and 65%.