Abstract
Carbamazepine (CBZ) is an anti-epileptic and anti-convulsant drug widely used for the treatment of epilepsy and other bipolar disorders. Ozone as an advanced oxidation process has been widely used for the degradation of CBZ resulting in the formation of transformation products (ozonides). The present research aims to isolate and identify potential microorganism, capable of degradation of CBZ and its transformation products. The cell viability and cytotoxicity of pure CBZ and their ozone transformation products were evaluated using the cells of Pseudomonas sp. strain KSH-1 through cell viability assay tests. The cells metabolic activity was assessed at varying CBZ concentrations (~ 10-25 ppm, pure CBZ) and cumulatively for ozone transformation products. For pure CBZ, % cell viability decreases as CBZ concentration increases, while, in case of post-ozonated CBZ transformation products, the viability decreases initially and then increases upon exposure of ozone with a maximum cell viability of 97 ± 2.8% evaluated for 2 h post-ozonated samples.