Gayatri Jeph, Shruti Mathur
Biosurfactants are amphipathic molecules with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties and are surface active agent that are produced extracellularly or as a part of cell membrane by bacteria, yeast and fungi.In the present study, four different microorganisms were isolated from oil contaminated soils. Screening of biosurfactant producing potential strain was done using haemolytic activity. Using 16S rDNA sequencing the potential strains were identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Paenibacillus dendritiformis, Bacillus cereus and Alcaligenes faecalis. Growth studies vis-a- vis biosurfactant production was studied. It was found that Alcaligenes faecalis produced the biosurfactant in the least time of 48h whereas the other isolates produced the same after 72-96h. Time required for product formation is an important but less studied aspect of process economics of industrial level production. In the context of this ,the present study shows that Alcaligenes faecalis is the best candidate for biosurfactant production.
Biosurfactant, time effect studies