Toxicity of phenol solutions treated with rapeseed and tomato hairy roots

Phenolic compounds are frequently found in several industrial effluents. Recently, the use of hairy root cultures has been explored as a new alternative for their treatment. In this study, rapeseed and tomato hairy roots (HR) were used to remove phenol efficiently (100 to 250mg/L) from aqueous solutions in a short time. The removal efficiencies were 95–80% and 60–70% for rapeseed and tomato HR respectively. Polyethylene-glycol (PEG-3350) addition to the reaction medium, significantly enhanced removal efficiency of rapeseed HR reaching values of 98–88%.