Fungal biodegradation of carbofuran and carbofuran phenol by the fungus Mucor ramannianus: identification of metabolites

The fungus Mucor ramannianus was tested to elucidate the biological fate of a class of N-methyl carbamate pesticide carbofuran and its hydrolysed form carbofuran phenol. The elution profile obtained from analysis by high-pressure liquid chromatography equipped with a reverse-phase C-18 column showed that two peaks occurred after incubation of M. ramannianus with which 1 mM carbofuran was combined as a final concentration. In culture of M. ramannianus with 1 mM carbofuran phenol, it produced two other metabolites compared to metabolites of carbofuran. LC/MS analysis suggested that two of the metabolites produced from carbofuran phenol were most likely to be 2-hydoxy-3-(3-methylpropan-2-ol)phenol or 7a-(hydroxymethyl)-2,2-dimethylhexahydro-6H-furo[2,3-b]pyran-6-one and 3-hydroxycarbofuran-7-phenol.