Petroleum Hydrocarbon
Degradation Potential of Biosurfactant extracted from Bacteria isolated from Oil
Contaminated Sites
Harikumar Gayathri, Sreenidhi Yuvaraj and Krishnan Kannabiran
Res. J. Chem. Environ.; Vol. 29(12); 14-22;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/2912rjce014022; (2025)
Abstract
Petroleum hydrocarbons are widely used in day-to-day life and pollution caused by
them affects the environmental health, as it can readily alter/ disturb the fragile
nature of the terrestrial and marine ecosystem and human health. Bacterial biosurfactants
enhance the bioavailability of hydrophobic substances and thereby increase the rate
of biodegradation of crude oil. Petroleum crude oil degrading bacteria (VITGK5)
were isolated from soil samples collected from oil contaminated sites. A biosurfactant
was extracted from the isolate VITGK5 and studied for biodegradation of crude oil.
Spectrophotometric analysis of crude oil biodegradation by the bacterial isolate
VITGK5 was found to be 61.05%. The isolate showed an emulsification index of 69.7%,
a zone of 5 cm in the oil dispersion test and a triple positive for the drop collapse
test. The isolate was characterized by 16S rDNA sequencing and identified to be
belonging to the genus Klebsiella and designated as Klebsiella penumoniae sp. VITGK5.
The partially purified biosurfactant was characterized by FTIR and GC-MS and were
found to be lipid in nature. This study explores the use of bacterial biosurfactants
for bioremediation of oil spills as an eco-friendly approach to protect the environmental
health.
