Mitigating Aquatic Carbamazepine Pollution: A Systematic Review of Bioremediation Strategies

Pharmaceutical pollution in aquatic environments causes significant ecological and public health challenges. Carbamazepine is one of the major pharmaceutical pollutants, and bioremediation is considered a suitable method for removing pharmaceutical pollutants. Thus, this study aimed to systematically review the published literature on biological approaches, specifically microbial and algal bioremediation, for the removal of the pharmaceutical pollutant carbamazepine from aquatic systems. A systematic review of the published literature was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) approach. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed, and ResearchGate for studies published between 2015 and April 2025. The keywords 'carbamazepine', 'bioremediation', 'aquatic environments' and 'pharmaceutical pollution'  were included in the search. The search identified a total of 1,148 articles (ResearchGate: 100, PubMed: 18, Google Scholar: 1,030). After following the exclusion and inclusion criteria, four full papers were selected to review. According to the findings, the bacterial strain Rhodococcus zopfii exhibited the highest carbamazepine removal (99.92–99.98%) at a pH of 7 and 40°C. However, the elevated temperature requirement limits the practical applicability. Gordonia polyisoprenivorans achieves over 50% carbamazepine removal at pH 7 and 32 °C. Among microalgae, Ankistrodesmus braunii is utilised due to its high removal efficiency (up to 87.6% at 10 mg/L Carbamazepine) and robust tolerance, making it the most suitable choice for a range of Carbamazepine concentrations. In contrast, Chlamydomonas mexicana and Scenedesmus obliquus exhibit lower efficiencies at higher Carbamazepine concentrations. To further elucidate the absolute effects of these approaches, a meta-analysis of existing literature is recommended. Future research should investigate hybrid systems that combine bacterial and algal consortia to improve removal efficiency and mitigate potential environmental challenges.