In areas where wood fuel is scarce, dung is also a commonly used fuel source. Therefore, in dry or cold areas where woody plants are not abundant, dung is a welcome concentrated pre-processed fuel e. Tibet, Mongolia , high areas of the Andes, etc.
Dung is either collected in stables with domesticated animals or from pastures with free-range domesticated or wild animal herds. Fresh dung needs to be dried before it can be used as a fuel, It is either left in in its natural shape or it is formed into round dung balls, flat dung cakes, or moulded around a stick.
In some regions, dung is mixed with other kinds of fuel such as coal dust, or agricultural residues in order to enhance the burning performance by increasing the energy-density. However, due to cultural convictions, in some regions the use of dung and especially the drying of dung may not be culturally accepted. The heating value of dung can also vary largely between different types of dung. However, there is no consistent and comprehensive data available for this type of fuel.
As a result, a high quantity of ash remains in the stove at the end of a dung-fire. Cow manure as energy not only interests dairy farms, but the idea has also interested car company Toyota. The hydrogen in particular could be used to fuel Toyota's fuel cell hydrogen cars. While untraditional, this method of energy production has lots of potential. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines.
The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author. A Mycobacterium sp. Lignolytic fungi Irpex lacteus has also shown the ability to degrade phenanthrene to phenanthrene-9,dihydrodiol Cajthaml et al.
All these findings indicate that cow dung can supply nutrients and energy required for microbial growth thereby resulting in the bioremediation of pollutants. Incineration is a method of choice for disposal of biomedical waste but it is not environmental friendly due to production of toxic gases giving rise to health complications. Another useful application of cow dung microorganisms is in the treatment of biomedical and pharmaceutical waste Randhawa and Kullar Cyathus stercoreus , isolated from aged cow dung, is not only capable of degrading lignocelluloses in vitro Wicklow et al.
Research by Pandey and Gundevia showed complete biodegradation of biomedical waste placed in culture medium of a cow dung fungus, Periconiella. Few reports have been published describing the importance of cow dung microbiota in effective disposal of pesticides.
Singh and Fulekar designed a bioreactor for bioremediation of phenol utilising cow dung as a source of biomass. Two bacteria namely Pseudomonas plecoglossicida and Pseudomonas aeruginosa present in microbial consortium have also been detected to completely degrade hazardous chemicals like cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos Fulekar and Geetha ; Boricha and Fulekar ; Randhawa and Kullar Geetha and Fulekhar utilised cow dung slurry in the ratio of for bioremediation of pesticides namely chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, fenvalerate and trichlopyr butoxyethyl ester and found that all these pesticides are degraded into some intermediate or less harmful compounds.
Heavy metals enter into food chain through bioaccumulation from sources such as water, soil and air. These metals destroy the growth and metabolism of cells, disrupt the respiratory tract and accumulate in internal organs such as lever, heart and kidneys.
Industrial waste is one of the major sources of heavy metal contamination of environment and involved in destruction of flora and fauna of water Feng et al.
Remediation of heavy metals is commonly done by electrolytic deposition, electrodialysis, electrochemical, evaporation, precipitation, ion exchange, reduction, reverse osmosis, filtration, adsorption, chemical precipitation and distillation Mohapatra et al. All these methods are expensive and not environment friendly; hence, there is a need of cleaner and greener methods.
Cow dung and its microorganisms have recently been tapped for the remediation of heavy metals like chromium, strontium and arsenic. Arsenic can be detoxified by methylation process. The ability of bacteria to methylate arsenic into volatile products mainly arsine, in the form of dimethylarsine, is already known Bachofen et al. Mohapatra et al. It was detected that methanogenic bacteria at substrate, i.
Dry cow dung powder has recently been used as a source of adsorption for the removal of chromium from aqueous solution and achieved Another heavy metal, i. Barot and Bagla detected biosorption of a radiotoxic strontium 90Sr by dry cow dung powder. Thus, dry cow dung powder may be preferred over other synthetic adsorbents because of their production cost, time and energy requirements. Cow dung is a cheap and economically viable resource which is easily available.
According to the above-discussed data, cow dung can be employed with or without pre- or post-treatment as an excellent measure to bioremediate nonbiodegradable and potentially toxic pollutants. Using cow dung for bioremediation is a simple and eco-friendly method as it does not produce any harmful by products. However, much more comprehensive studies are required to be done in this field. Microbial enzymes have got immense application because microbes can easily be cultivated and their enzyme can catalyse wide variety of hydrolytic and synthetic reactions Illavarasi Many microbial enzymes have been isolated and studied for their industrial and commercial uses.
However, still there is a continuous search for the potential microorganisms that are able to synthesise industrially feasible enzymes and microbial diversity of cow dung makes it a potential source for the said purpose Dowd et al. Bacillus spp. In case of poor enzyme production, genetically improved strains can be constructed for enhanced enzyme production. For instance, Sadhu et al. Teo and Teoh detected several cow dung isolates producing enzymes like protease, lipase and esterase lipase.
Xylanolytic bacteria are receiving increasing commercial interest in several industries such as enzyme-aided bleaching of paper Encarna et al. One member of xylanolytic bacteria Paenibacillus favisporus sp. Not only as a microbial source but cow dung may also serve as good substrate for enzyme production, for example, in production of detergent-stable dehairing protease by alkaliphilic B.
Vijayaraghavan and Vincent and fibrinolytic enzyme from Pseudoalteromonas sp. Vijayaraghavan and Vincent Microbial products or their derivatives can kill or inhibit the growth of susceptible pathogenic microbes Willey et al. However, overuse and misuse of these antimicrobial agents have resulted in the development of resistance amongst pathogens Aly et al.
At present, bacterial resistance against the antibiotics is of great concern for clinicians, public health officials and researchers as it results in substantial morbidity, mortality and increased cost of treatment Naiemi et al.
The pharmaceutical industries and healthcare systems of the world are continuously fighting multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria the last 50 years. Following this fundamental need to counter antibiotic resistance, one way is to search for new sources having possibilities for antibiotic-producing microorganisms. Soil is the prominent source from where hundreds of antibiotic-producing organisms have been isolated during the last five decades Khamna et al. Recently workers have started to explore other sources such as oceans Wu et al.
Bacteria colonising marine invertebrate e. A relatively limited number of reports exist on the presence of antagonistic activity amongst cow dung microorganisms and antimicrobial activity of cow dung as a whole. Cow dung possesses antiseptic and prophylactic or disease preventive properties.
It destroys the microorganism that causes disease and putrefaction. Medicinal properties of five products collectively known as panchgavya obtained from cow namely milk, ghee, curd, dung and urine are supported by their use in the preparation of various herbal medicines Pathak and Kumar ; Jarald et al.
Panchgavya therapy utilises these five products singly or in combination with herbal or mineral drugs for the treatment of many diseases like flu, allergies, colds, cough, asthma, renal disorders, gastrointestinal tract disorders, acidity, ulcer, wound healing, heart diseases, skin infections, tuberculosis, chickenpox, hepatitis, leprosy and several other bacterial and viral infections.
Panchgavya also seems to be beneficial even for the diseases such as cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS and diabetes. Immunostimulatory, immunomodulatory and antiinflammatory effects of panchagavya are also being mentioned in Ayurveda Chauhan ; Dhama et al. Recently, central nervous system action of panchgavya on spontaneous motor activity, muscle tone and pain has been determined in albino rats Paliwal et al. Cow dung has antifungal substance that inhibits the growth of coprophilous fungi Dhama et al.
Eupenicillium bovifimosum present in cow dung produces patulodine-like compounds viz. One isolated strain Enterococcus faecalis V24 was found to produce a heat stable, largely hydrophobic antimicrobial substance with significant antimicrobial activity against pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria. Possible applications of cow dung microorganisms in pharmaceutical industry has been indicated by Teo and Teoh and it was shown that isolate K4 possessed antibacterial activity against E.
Research has also been conducted on water, ethanol and n-Hexane extract of whole cow dung against Candida , E. Mycobacterium vaccae , a non-pathogenic bacterium, first isolated from cow dung possesses antidepressant properties.
When inhaled, it enhanced the growth of neuron which stimulates the production of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain Lowry et al. Its effects on anxiety and learning power were also tested on the mice and it showed good results when the mice fed with live M.
Immunotherapy by killed M. These reports suggest that cow dung may serve as a promising untapped source containing microorganisms, which hopefully may be connected to novel antimicrobial metabolites.
Cow dung host a wide variety of microorganisms varying in individual properties. Exploitation of cow dung microflora can contribute significantly in sustainable agriculture and energy requirements.
It is one of the bioresources of this world which is available on large scale and still not fully utilised. The understanding of the mechanisms enabling cow dung microbes to degrade hydrocarbons can promote bioremediation of environmental pollutants. With recent advances in scientific research and techniques for complete genome sequences, the genes responsible for bioremediation can be identified.
Another exciting area of research for future studies is developing microbial enzymes and antimicrobials. The production of enzymes by microorganisms from this cheap bioresource can find wide applications in various fields such as agriculture, chemistry and biotechnology. The application of cow dung microflora with considerable antimicrobial potential can result in the promotion of human health; however, comprehensive screening of these microorganisms for the production of antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral metabolites needed to be investigated.
It is certainly evident that more detailed studies of cow dung are needed, as there is still a tremendous scope for research and development to reach up to the industrial scale production of antibiotics and enzymes. In this way, cow dung may be considered as an easily available bioresource that holds a great potential for sustainable development in the near future.
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