Xenobiotics in the environment: present and future strategies to obviate the problem of biological persistence

Sustainable chemistry aims at an improved efficiency of using natural resources which are used to meet human needs for chemical products. Chemists in science and industry, have become aware of the importance to design environmentally benign chemicals. One aspect is the biological persistence and the present paper reviews work in this field focussing on the degradation of xenobiotics in the environment. Different structural reasons for chemical and biological persistence are described and strategies to use single bacterial isolates or microbial communities for the elimination of xenobiotic pollutants in the environment are summarized. Perspectives and limitations to evolve and use this catabolic potential are critically discussed with respect to the complexity of mixtures of xenobiotics often found in practice. An interdisciplinary approach for the prospective design of environmentally benign substances is presented and examples for new commodity chemicals that better fit the naturally existing catabolic potential are included. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.