Biodegration of Formaldehyde-Releasing Preservatives

A strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from the spoiled product and its characteristics on various formaldehyde-releasing preservatives were investigated. This strain, P. aeruginosa FR, could utilize 1.0% of imidazolidinyl urea and 0.2% of DMDM hydantoin as a sole carbon and nitrogen source in the minimal salts medium. With the growth of the strain in minimal salts medium containing imidazolidinyl urea, formic acid was initially accumulated according to the decrease of formaldehyde concentration. It was suggested that formaldehyde dehydrogenase was involved in this oxidation process and could catalyze formaldehyde, imidazolidinyl urea, DMDM hydantoin and quaternium-15, but not bronopol. MICs of this strain to each preservation were 0.03% in formaldehyde, 1.0% in imidazolidinyl urea, 0.2% in DMDM hydantoin, 0.2% in quaternium-15 and 0.1% of EDTA-2Na. But the MICs were diminished about ten times when 0.01% of EDTA-2Na was added to the preservative systems. In actual challenge test, the eyeliner and the pack which contained paraben and imidazolidinyl urea were not able to be protected from this strain, but when 0.05% EDTA-2Na was added the products were sufficiently preserved.