Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Surfactants and emulsifiers are widely used in the petroleum, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Most of these compounds are chemically synthesized and it is only in the past few decades that surface-active molecules of biological origin have been described. At present biosurfactants are readily biodegradable and can be produced from renewable and cheaper substrates, they might be able to replace their chemically synthesized counter parts. Among the heterogeneous group of biosurfactants, the rhamnose-containing glycolipids produced by Pseudomonas. Rhamnolipid has been known as biosurfactant which is produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in fermentation process. The different carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous sources have been used to produce rhamnolipid. This work concerns the growth kinetics aspects of rhamnolipids biosurfactants. The laboratory scale experiments are carried out for rhamnolipid biosurfactant production by Pseudomonas aerogenosa involving a medium with the following composition (g/L): Glucose (x1): 10.0, NH 4 NO 3 (x 2 ): 1.7, KH 2 PO 4 (x 3 ): 3.0, yeast extract (x 4 ): 5.0, MgSO 4 .7H 2 O (x 5 ): 0.2, Na 2 HPO 4 7.0, and 1ml hexadecane. The concentrations of the Glucose, NH 4 NO 3 ; KH 2 PO 4 ; MgSO 4 .7H 2 O; and yeast extract 5.0; were varied according to experimental design. The strain was grown at at room temperature (30±70C) with agitation speed of 200 rpm for 24 hours and was used as an inoculum at the concentration of 10%(v/v). For biosurfactant production, P. aeuriginosa was grown in 250 ml flask with 100 ml of Minimal media at the same conditions for 48 hours. The aim is to study the kinetic behaviour for rhamnolipid production from Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using different substrates such as glucose, phosphorous and nitrate. The samples continuously withdrawn for every 2 hours during 48 hours period and the kinetic behaviour of substrates concentrations (glucose, phosphorous and nitrate) and rhamnolipid concentration are observed. The rhamnolipid product concentration is found to good agreement with the reported experimental data.

Biography

J. Satya Eswari has obtained her M.Tech Biotechnology from IIT, Kharagpur. Currently she is working as Woman-Scientist at IICT, Hyderabad and pursuing Ph.D from IIT, Hyderabad. She has published few papers in reputed journals and worked in sponsored projects.