Evaluation of physic contamiants and contamination with coliforms, molds and yeasts of honey from the Northern Brazil

The Mercosur Technical Regulation for honey determines microbiological parameters for total coliforms and molds and/ yeasts, and absence of physical contaminants, of any nature. The purpose of this study was to verify the biological and physical contamin of Apis mellifera ligustica and Melipona fasciculata, commercialized in the northeastern region of the State of Pará, Brazil. The fourteen samples from informal trade of the municipalities of Bragança, Capanema, Nova Timboteua, São João de Pirabas, Salinas and Tracauateua were analyzed for the Most Probable Number of coliforms at 35ºC, Fungus and Yeast counts, besides the detection of dirt by Macro and Microscopy techniques. The results obtained from the microbiological analyzes were compared to the standard required by MERCOSUR, for coliforms. 57.14% of the samples were non-standard and ranged from <3.0 NMP/g to 20 NMP/g. The molds and/ yeast counts ranged from 1x10¹ CFU/g to 8.6x10² CFU/g, with a total of 21.42% of the samples being in disagreement with the legislation. From the macroscopic analysis, it was observed that, although 50% of the samples did not present any apparent dirt, microscopically it was possible to observe dirt in 100% of the samples of honey analyzed, which is out of the standard required by the Brazilian legislation. This shows the low sanitary quality of honey commercialized in this region of the state of Pará.(AU)

Tolerance to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) by filamentous fungi isolated from contaminated sediment in the Amazon region / Tolerância a Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromáticos (HPAs) por fungos filamentososisolados de sedimentos contaminados da região Amazônica

Tolerance to Polycyclic Hydrocarbons Aromatic (PAHs) is considered an important characteristic when assessing the bioremediation potential of microorganisms. Given this, the objective of this research was to assay filamentous fungi from the Amazon region, isolated from sediments with differents levels of contamination by PAHs, for tolerance to phenanthrene and pyrene. To achieve this, fungal cultures plugs (5 mm), obtained after 7 days growth, were transferred to petri dishes containing 20% Sabouraud dextrose agar medium, after surface innoculation with phenanthrene and pyrene crystals, separately. Radial mycelial growth was evaluated after 10 days at five different concentration levels for each contaminant and control group, all in triplicate for each treatment. Fungal growth and growth inhibition rates were calculated. The average growth of the colonies in each treatment was compared with one-way ANOVA, followed by a Tukey Test (p 0,05). All fungi showed tolerant to phenanthrene and pyrene. However, Hypoxylon sp. showed the lowest growth inhibition rate and average growth rates significantly different of the other six tested species. Hypoxylon sp. has been shown to be a promising genetic resource for use in new studies of PAHs degradation.(AU)

A tolerância a Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromática (HPAs) é considerada como umacaracterística importante na avaliação do potencial de micro-organismos para biorremediação. Diante disso,o objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar fungos filamentosos da região amazônica, isolados de sedimentos comdiferentes níveis de contaminação por HPAs, quanto à tolerância ao fenantreno e pireno. Para tanto, discosdas culturas fúngicas (5 mm), obtidas após 7 dias de crescimento, foram transferidas para placas de Petricontendo meio Agar Sabouraud Dextrose a 20%, após inoculação superficial com cristais de fenantreno epireno, separadamente. O crescimento micelial radial foi avaliado após 10 dias em cinco concentraçõesdiferentes para cada contaminante e grupo controle, ambos em triplicata para cada tratamento. As taxas decrescimento fúngico e de inibição de crescimento foram calculadas. O crescimento médio das colônias emcada tratamento foi comparado com ANOVA one way, seguido pelo teste de Tukey (p < 0,05). Todos osfungos mostraram tolerância ao fenantreno e ao pireno. No entanto, Hypoxylon sp. apresentou menor taxade inibição de crescimento e taxas médias de crescimento significativamente diferentes das outras seisespécies testadas. Hypoxylon sp. tem se mostrado um recurso genético promissor para uso em novos estudossobre degradação de HPAs.(AU)