Producción y evaluación de un biosurfactante producido a partir de Bacillus megaterium ATCC 14581 usando aceite de cocina usado como sustrato

Abstract

As the world increasingly concerned about the impact of synthetic products and the failure to make use of much organic waste, the production of biosurfactants based on microorganisms has become a fundamental line of research. Bacillus-type microorganisms are well known for their ability to produce biosurfactants, especially lipopeptides, due to their stability in extreme conditions, efficiency in reducing surface tension, and efficient metabolic pathways for the formation of biosurfactants. First, used cooking oil was collected and subjected to a preliminary filtering and conditioning process. Subsequently, liquid fermentation was carried out on a flask scale using Bacillus Megaterium (BM) ATCC 14581 to assess biosurfactant production using 2% glucose, 1% glucose – 1% oil, and finally 2% oil (v/v) in a synthetic medium. It was observed that the treatment with 2% oil showed the highest biosurfactant production: from a non-detectable value (–), 143.25 PPM was reached at 24 hours and 173.17 PPM at 48 hours. In addition to this, characterization tests were performed on the biosurfactant obtained through assays such as oil drop displacement and emulsification index (E24), as well as the evaluation of inhibition of a strain of the pathogen Escherichia coli, with the purpose of determining its antimicrobial capacity.