ABSTRACT
Biosurfactants are amphiphillic compounds produced by certain microorganisms. Biosurfactant molecules arrange themselves in water-oil interface and reduce surface tension. Biosurfactants have some advantages over chemical surfactants in market with respect to biodegradability, low toxicity, bettersurface, and interfacial activity. Henceforth, in this study we aimed to optimize the cultivation conditions to produce biosurfactant, namely mannoprotein from yeast strain Saccharomycess cerevisiae 2031. Here, the detailed production process has been mentioned which involves inoculum development, biosurfactant production, screening, purification and stability assay. The screening of mannoprotein was done by using standard screening method i.e. Oil displacement method followed by measurement of emulsification activity. The purification of mannoprotein was achieved by a two-stage process comprised of Ion-exchange chromatography&Gel filtration chromatography. Emulsification properties of the biosurfactant revealed that it is not affected by a wide range of environmental conditions such as pH (3–12), temperature (4–70 º C) and salt concentration (2–10%), thus making it useful for various applications like effectively emulsify different commercial oils, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, organic solvents, and waste cooking oil, also making it suitable for bioremediation of lipid-based and petroleum-based contaminated wastes.
