Isolation and Screening of Biosurfactant Producing Bacteria from Different Fuel Contaminated Sites

Abstract

Biosurfactants, which are surface-dynamic specialists that can lessen both surface and interfacial pressure, have been seen as helpful for a long time. In the food business, they are utilized for adjustment, surface and taste improvement, and timeframe of realistic usability lengthening. The soaps, personal care and consumer product sector utilize nearly 60% of all surfactants. This envisaged in the present study to collect 70 different soil samples from Hub Road, Karachi port, Saeed Abad, Site area, Korangi industrial area, Gadani, Ettehad town, Baldi town Soil samples were inoculated to mineral salt medium containing 0.1% crude oil and incubated on ambient temperature for 48 hours. After incubation samples were serially diluted by 10 folds dilution up to four consecutive dilutions and last two dilution was plated on nutrient agar. Screening of isolates were carried out on the basis of drop collapse assay, hemolysis, and oil spreading methods. Out of 80 only 14 found positive for drop collapse assay and oil spreading methods and among these only 5 were hemolytic. Identification of isolated strains were carried out on morphological and biochemical basis. Consortium of positive strains were develop using streak plate methods for increased biosurfactant production and its application in seed germination in plant growth promotion and oil emulsification were studied. Results have shown that isolated bacteria have the potential to produce biosurfactants of great importance hence it can be concluded that after further detailed investigation can be used for industrial scale.