AUTHOR=Cibelli Francesca , Bevilacqua Antonio , Raimondo Maria L. , Campaniello Daniela , Carlucci Antonia , Ciccarone Claudio , Sinigaglia Milena , Corbo Maria R. 

TITLE=Evaluation of Fungal Growth on Olive-Mill Wastewaters Treated at High Temperature and by High-Pressure Homogenization

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02515

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.02515

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Reuse of olive mill wastewaters (OMWWs) in agriculture represents a significant challenge for health and safety of our planet. Phytotoxic compounds in OMWW generally prohibit use of untreated OMWWs for agricultural irrigation or direct discharge into surface waters. However, pretreated OMWW can have positive effects on chemical and microbiological soil characteristics, to fight against fungal soil-borne pathogens. Low amounts of OMWW following thermal (TT-OMWW) and high-pressure homogenization (HPH-OMWW) pretreatments counteracted growth of some of 12 soil-borne and/or pathogenic fungi examined. With fungal growth measured as standardized change in time to half maximum colony diameter, Δτ, overall, HPH-OMWW showed increased bioactivity, as increased mean Δτ from 3.0 to 4.8 days. Principal component analysis highlighted two fungal groups: <italic>Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Alternaria alternata, Sclerotium rolfsii</italic>, and <italic>Rosellinia necatrix</italic>, with growth strongly inhibited by the treated OMWWs; and <italic>Aspergillus ochraceus</italic> and <italic>Phaeoacremonium parasiticum</italic>, with stimulated growth by the treated OMWWs. As a non-thermal treatment, HPH-OMWW generally shows improved positive effects, which potentially arise from preservation of the phenols.</p>