Co-production of polyhydroxyalkanoates and biosurfactants using <i>Pseudomonas luteola</i>

Abstract

Co-production of Poly (β-hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) and Biosurfactants (BS) is made possible because they both contain hydroxyalkanoic acids as their main constituents. This study investigated the use of glucose and molasses at varying concentrations as alternative carbon substrates for the co-production of PHAs and BS. Biosynthesis was for 7days at 30⁰C during which the best PHA was produced from 8% glucose (101 mg\L) on the third day and the best BS from 4% molasses (52 mg/L) on the fifth day. The produced PHAs contained hexadecanoic, octadecenoic and octadecanoic acids from molasses and hexadecanoic and octadecenoic acids from glucose. Some fractions from the open column chromatography were positive to both Anthrone and Rhodamine B test reagent and others negative to Ninhydrin test reagent indicating that the presence of a glycolipid; the PHAs on the other hand showed monomers of alkanoic acids.

Keywords: Biosurfactant (BS), Glucose, Molasses, Poly (β-hydroxyalkanoic acids) (PHA) and Pseudomonas luteola