[Microbial degradation of mustard gas reaction masses: isolation and selection of degradative microorganisms, analysis of organic components of reaction masses and their biodegradation]. / Mikrobiologicheskaia degradatsiia reaktsionnykh mass iprita: vydelenie i selektsiia mikroorganizmov-destruktorov, analiz organicheskikh komponentov reaktsionnykh mass i ikh biodestruktsiia.

Bacterial strains growing in medium with mustard gas reaction masses (RM) as carbon sources were obtained. Growth cessation in the above medium was caused by the exhaustion of bioutilizable substrates, first of all monoethanolamine (MEA) and ethyleneglycol (EG), rather than by the accumulation of toxic metabolites in the culture liquid or in the cells. The main RM components, 1,4-perhydrothiazines (PHT), formed in the course of chemical detoxication of mustard gas, were identified and analyzed. The predominant component of PHT mixture was N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-methyl-1,4-perhydrothiazine hydrochloride. Concentrations of all the PHT decreased by 50% in the course of culture growth; their destruction was a result of microbial metabolism.