Abstract
Vegetable oil Spills are becoming frequent and are potentially more challenging than petroleum hydrocarbon spills. Microbial lipases occupy a place of prominence among biocatalysts are often used for remediation of vegetable oil-polluted sites. This work was carried out to isolate microorganisms from oil-polluted sites and screen them for their lipolytic activity. Microorganisms were isolated from eight experimental soil samples contaminated with different types of vegetable oil, soil from an oil mill in Ibadan, and normal uncontaminated soil as a control. The isolates were characterized, identified and those common to at least one of the experimental sites and oil mill sites were screened for their lipolytic activity. Data obtained were analysed using Duncan Multiple Range Test. Seventy three microorganisms were isolated from the polluted soil and identified as species of Bacillus (16), Pseudomonas (12), Flavobacterium (6), Alcaligenes (2), Proteus (3), Micrococcus (1), Aspergillus (9), Penicillium (6), Saccharomyces (4), Geotrichum (1), Kluveromyces (1). Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformic, Pseudomonas cepacia, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Flavobacterium sp., Alcaligenes sp. and Candida parapsilosis which were common to at least one of the experimental site and oil mill site were preliminarily screened for lipolytic activity and all nine confirmed by presence of halos around the colonies. These screened organisms have potential for the degradation of fatty waste. They could therefore be employed in environmental clean-up of vegetable oil spill site.
Highlights
IntroductionVegetable oils are oil extractions from plants and fruits such as palm nut, sunflower, soybean, coconut, rapeseed, canola, olive, castor and corn [1]
Bacillus licheniformic, Pseudomonas cepacia, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Flavobacterium sp., Alcaligenes sp. and Candida parapsilosis which were common to at least one of the experimental site and oil mill site were preliminarily screened for lipolytic activity and all nine confirmed by presence of halos around the colonies
Thirty-four bacterial isolates were obtained from the soil sample in the bowls contaminated with different types of edible oil
Summary
Vegetable oils are oil extractions from plants and fruits such as palm nut, sunflower, soybean, coconut, rapeseed, canola, olive, castor and corn [1]. Vegetable oils can vary significantly and when released to the marine environment for instance will behave differently according to their individual characteristics. These characteristics depend on factors at the time of cultivation of the feed stock for example, climate; degree of processing; type and specific nature of the oil, sea state and weather conditions at the time of the spill. Vegetable oils comprised primarily of triacylglycerols or fatty acids, which, in their fresh state, may be broken down by bacteria, fungi and yeast This breakdown is as a result of lipases, a class of hydrolases primarily responsible for hydrolysis of acylglycerides. This study was undertaken to isolate, identify, characterize and screen microorganisms from vegetable oil contaminated soil samples
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