Biosurfactant – Isolation, Production, Purification & Significance

Abstract- The present article is aimed to determine common cultivable surfactant producers from soil and contaminated oil, its purification and significance. Bio-surfactants are surface-active substances synthesized by living cells and as compared to synthetic surfactants, they are more effective, selective, environmental friendly and stable. They have the properties of reducing surface tension, stabilizing emulsions, promoting foaming and are generally non-toxic and biodegradable. Interest in microbial surfactants has been steadily increasing due to their diversity, eco-friendly nature, possibility of large-scale production, selectivity, performance under extreme conditions and potential applications in environmental protection. Bio-surfactants enhance the emulsification of hydrocarbons; have the potential to solubilize it to increase their availability for microbial degradation. These compounds can be used in enhanced oil recovery, environmental protection, herbicides and pesticides formulations, detergents, health care and cosmetics, pulp and paper, coal, textiles, ceramic processing and food industries, uranium ore-processing and mechanical dewatering of peat. Mostly bacteria and yeasts are known to synthesize bio-surfactants. These microorganisms synthesize a wide range of chemicals with surface activity, such as glycolipid (low molecular weight surfactants), phospholipids and others like polyanionic heteropolysaccharides (containing covalently-linked hydrophobic side chains or complexes containing both polysaccharides and proteins). In this study two unique isolates L4 and L15 (screened from soil contaminated with oil) are grown on MSM broth with 2 % glucose for the production of bio-surfactant. Bio-surfactant was purified by Ammonium sulphate precipitation or ZnCl2 precipitation method and identified b