Treatment of heavy metals contaminated water: use of B. mojavensis BI2 derived lipopeptide and palm waste flour.

In the present work, we demonstrated the potential use of newly identified lipopeptides produced by B. mojavensis BI2 along with palm waste flour for the bioremediation of heavy metals contaminated water. The enhancement of radish seeds germination was used to evaluate the treatment efficiency. Firstly, better enhancement in the order of 3.8, 2.52, 1.5 and 5 were recorded respectively for 200 mg/L copper, lead, cobalt and mercury with respective lipopeptide quantities of the order of 200, 300, 200 and 400 mg/L. When studying the sequestration of increasing heavy metals concentration, BI2 lipopeptide was effective. Secondly, a mixed bioprocess was evaluated using palm waste flour as heavy metals sequester and BI2 lipopeptides as improver. Optimal biosorption of lead, copper, cobalt and mercury were obtained with 10 g/l waste, 1,000 mg/l metal and 200 mg/l BI2 lipopeptide for 1 hour. The addition of 200 mg/l BI2 lipopeptide improves the efficiency of the treatment significantly.

Glycolipid biosurfactants: Potential related biomedical and biotechnological applications.

Glycolipids, consisting of a carbohydrate moiety linked to fatty acids, are microbial surface active compounds produced by various microorganisms. They are characterized by highly structural diversity and have the ability to decrease the surface and interfacial tension at the surface and interface respectively. Rhamnolipids, trehalolipids, mannosylerythritol-lipids and cellobiose lipids are among the most popular glycolipids. Moreover, their ability to form pores and destabilize biological membrane permits their use in biomedicine as antibacterial, antifungal and hemolytic agents. Their antiviral and antitumor effects enable their use in pharmaceutic as therapeutic agents. Also, glycolipids can inhibit the bioadhesion of pathogenic bacteria enabling their use as anti-adhesive agents and for disruption of biofilm formation and can be used in cosmetic industry. Moreover, they have great potential application in industry as detergents, wetting agents and for flotation. Furthermore, glycolipids can act at the surface and can modulate enzyme activity permitting the enhancement or the inhibition of the activity of certain enzymes.

Lipopeptide surfactants: Production, recovery and pore forming capacity.

Lipopeptides are microbial surface active compounds produced by a wide variety of bacteria, fungi and yeast. They are characterized by highly structural diversity and have the ability to decrease the surface and interfacial tension at the surface and interface, respectively. Surfactin, iturin and fengycin of Bacillus subtilis are among the most studied lipopeptides. This review will present the main factors encountering lipopeptides production along with the techniques developed for their extraction and purification. Moreover, we will discuss their ability to form pores and destabilize biological membrane permitting their use as antimicrobial, hemolytic and antitumor agents. These open great potential applications in biomediacal, pharmaceutic and agriculture fields.