Microbiological Media from Temple Waste: An Ecofriendly Approach of Waste Management

摘要

The temple wastes consist of vegetable material (mainly flowers, leaves, fruits, sugar, jaggery, etc.), milkand milk products, grains and water most of which are biodegradable and contain elements required forgrowth of microorganisms. Temple wastes are released in water bodies or dumped on the available placesof land creating severe environmental pollution and health hazards, hence, it was thought to attempt usetemple waste for preparation of microbiological media to cultivate common microorganisms in themicrobiological laboratories. In the present study, temple waste extract was used to prepare microbiologicalnutrient media for cultivation of common bacteria (at pH 7.4 of medium) like Bacillus subtilis, Bacillusmegaterium and Staphylococcus aureus, and fungi (at pH 5.4 of medium) like Aspergillus niger, Penicilliumchrysogenum (molds), Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Torulla (yeasts). For bacteria, the standard controlmedium used for comparison was nutrient agar, while for fungi it was Sabouraud’s agar. The results werehighly encouraging where more luxuriant growth of both bacteria and fungi was obtained on the templewaste microbiological media in comparison to standard controlled media. Thus, temple waste basedmicrobiological nutrient media can be used to cultivate common microorganisms, which will be highlyeconomical as compared to costly standard and commercial microbiological media.