Horseradish peroxidase catalyzed degradation of industrially important dyes

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is known to degrade certain recalcitrant organ ic compounds such as phenol and substituted phenols. Here, for the first ti me we have shown HRP to be effective in degrading and precipitating industr ially important azo dyes. For Remazol blue, the enzyme activity was found t o be far better at pH 2.5 than at neutral pH. In addition, Remazol blue act s as a strong competitive inhibitor of HRP at neutral pH. Horseradish perox idase shows broad substrate specificity toward a variety of azo dyes. Kinet ic constants (K-m(app) and V-max(app)) for two different dyes have been det ermined. In addition to providing a systematic analysis of the potential of HRP in degradation of dyes, this study opens up a new area on exploration of commercial dyes as inhibitors of enzymes. 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.