Properties of Fulvic Acid Extracted from Excess Sludge and Its Inhibiting Effect on β-Hexosaminidase Release

Abstract

The physicochemical and biological properties of fulvic acid extracted and purified from excess sludge and solubilized excess sludge were studied. Solubilization was introduced to improve the recovery rate of fulvic acid from the sludge. The structural features of fulvic acid from excess sludge and solubilized excess sludge were characterized by using an elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and were compared with fulvic acid extracted from peat which had an inhibitory effect on the type I allergy in our previous study. The results show that they had a higher aliphatic characteristic with lower oxygen group content than fulvic acid from peat, and that the aliphatic characteristic was further strengthened by the use of solubilization. The biological properties of fulvic acid from excess sludge and solubilized excess sludge showed an inhibitory effect on β-hexosaminidase release at the antigen-antibody binding stage and antigen-receptor binding stage by using rat basophilic leukemia cells.