<![CDATA[Capability of Rhodobacterium bacteraceae in producing biosurfactant were investigated.
Biosurfactant has been produced using medium of Mineral Salt Medium with two sources of
carbon, which is crude oil (RB-CO) and waste coconut oil (RB-WCO) as carbon sources.
Biosurfactant extent was determined by the yield of biosurfactant and the surface tension
reduction. Biosurfactant were investigated for their efectiveness on PAHs biodegradation. The
results showed that R. bacteraceae can produce biosurfactant, and showed the highest
biosurfactant yield (2,791 g/l) when grown on RB-WCO, while we found 2,122 g/l yield on
MSM-CO after 72 hours. The best biosurfactant activity was obtained when using waste
coconut oil as carbon source, resulted in surface tension reduction up to 29,17 mN/m. Addition
of 50 mg of biosurfactant per 200 ml of the mineral salt medium containing 50 ppm PAHs
significantly enhanced the PAHs degradation indicating that the organism utilized crude oil as
carbon source. Our concluding remarks suggest that biosurfactant from R. bacteraceae when
grown on waste coconut oil substrate can be used as an effective agent to be applied on site
contaminated with PAHs by enhancing biodegradation rate.]]>
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