The interest in microbial surfactants has been increased considerably in the recent years. Environmental concern among consumers, combined with new laws control of the environment, the demand for natural surfactants, to replace petrochemicals. The microbial surfactants have been tested in many industrial and environmental applications, such as in bioremediation, oil dispersion and oil recovery, replacing chemical surfactants. Furthermore, they can also be used in the food, cosmetic, detergent and agriculture. However, increased environmental concern among consumers to new legislation combined control of the environment has led to demand for natural surfactants as alternatives to existing products. This work aimed to produce biosurfactant by Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472, using low nutrient value. The surface tension of the biosurfactant produced by C. violaceum ATCC 12472 had values between 29 and 40 mN/m. The best result was observed on the assay 8 (8.0% of corn steep liquor, 1.0% of lactose and corn oil post-frying 7.5%) factorial design, within 72 hours of fermentation, lowering the surface tension of water from 71 to 29 mN/m. The best results of the index (E24) and emulsification activity (UEA) were observed in the central point, and using the both methods and corn post-frying oil resulted in 72% of emulsification, and the emulsification activity value of 6 UAE. The results demonstrate the high potential of C. violaceum promising in producing a biosurfactant.
Chromobacterium violaceum; biosurfactant; alternative sources