ISOLATION, SCREENING AND IDENTIFICATION OF BIOSURFACTANT PRODUCING FUNGAL STRAINS.

Abstract

Biosurfactants are the surface active compounds which are of microbial origin that are produced by different strains of bacteria fungi and actinomycetes. Soil samples were collected and 10 fungal colonies were isolated using pour plate method. Out of 10 fungal strains three were selected for further studies based on foaming activity. Preliminary and confirmatory tests were used for the identification of biosurfactant produced by three fungal strains. PS7 showed high biosurfactant production in emulsification index compared to other isolates. In this study morphology of fungal isolates were seen using trinocular microscope. Biosurfactants had different applications in the areas of oil recovery, cosmetics, agriculture, food processing. Copy Right, IJAR, 2018,. All rights reserved. Introduction:-Biosurfactants are surface active amphiphilic molecules which are produced by a number of microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and filamentous fungi (G. Seghal Kiran et al., 2009). These biosurfactants possess both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties with different polarities such as hydrocarbons and water hence decrease the interfacial tension (Karanth et al., 1997). The production of biosurfactants by bacterial species is well known, relatively some fungi are known to produce biosurfactants. Candida bombicola, Candida lipolytica, Candida ishiwadae, Candida batistae, Aspergillus ustus are the well known fungi for the production of biosurfactants. The type of biosurfactant produced mainly by these strains are sophorolipids (Gharima Bhardwaj et al., 2013). Biosurfactants are having a wide range of applications in the areas of bioremediation, food processing and pharmaceutical industries. (Kamal preet kaur et al., 2017). Biosurfactants are preferred over synthetic surfactants because of their low toxicity, biodegradable nature (sammer M. Al-Hulu 2016). These biosurfactants place an important role in the protection of environment and petrochemical industry. Biosurfactants are used in the bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons in ground water and soil and in degradation of hazardous compounds (P.G. Carrillo et al., 1996) .