Toxicity Test of Chromium and Glutaraldehyde to Determine Greener Chemical in Tannery Industry

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the toxicity level of chromium and glutaraldehyde. This research was conducted by testing the resistance level of fungi (Aspergillus niger sp.) toward glutaraldehyde and chromium in the medium of Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). Variable of this experiment was the growth of Aspergillus niger sp. that indicates the resistance level of Aspergillus niger sp. The growth rate of Aspergillus niger sp. was classified on four scales. They were, (I) scale 1: zero growth; (II) scale 2: low growth (+); (III) scale 3: medium growth (++); (IV) Scale: 4 high growth (+++). All collected data were analysed by One Way ANOVA. The result showed that the toxicity of chromium and glutaraldehyde tanning material were highly significantly different toward Aspergillus niger (P<0,01). The Aspergillus niger sp. growth rate scale in chromium medium was high (scale 4: 4.00±0.00). Meanwhile, the growth rate scale of the Aspergillus niger sp. in glutaraldehyde medium was low (scale 2: 1.33 ± 0.58). Based on the fungi growth rate, it can be concluded that glutaraldehyde was more toxic than chromium tanning material toward Aspergillus niger sp. Furthermore, it can be said that glutaraldehyde is not quite ideal to be used as an alternative of chromium as a tanning material.

The Use of Glutaraldehyde Tanning Materials for Goat Skin Tanning

“…Glutaraldehyde has been found to have a softening effect on leather and also has the ability to make the leather more receptive to subsequent chemical treatments for water-repellency and other specific effect (Dettmer et al, 2011). Glutaraldehyde, still commonly used as pretanning agent of shrunken leather and re-tanning agent of glove leather (Rachmawati and Udkhiyati, 2017). Glutaraldehyde is the type of aldehyde that resulting from crosslinking between glutaraldehyde (CHO-CH₂-CH₂-CH₂-CHO) with NH₂ groups of the skin collagen (Chakraborty et al, 2008).…”

Development of aldehyde and similar-to-aldehyde tanning agents

“…The use of a glutaraldehyde tanning agent can enhance the effects of chromium salt tanning leather, and the torsion resistance and sweat resistance of finished leather are stronger than those of chromium-tanned leather. [23][24][25][26][27] The theoretical tanning process of glutaraldehyde is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…This form of polymerization can be partially degraded by hot water but cannot exist completely in linear form. 27 Therefore, when glutaraldehyde is used as a tanning agent, the tanning speed is slower than that of formaldehyde. The main structural forms and tanning of glutaraldehyde are shown in Figure 3.…”

Functionalized Glutathione on Chitosan-Genipin Cross-Linked Beads Used for the Removal of Trace Metals from Water

“…However, these chemicals are known to be toxic to living organisms. In fact, the cytotoxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic properties of glutaraldehyde were previously demonstrated [ 37 , 38 ].…”