CSIR Central

Microbial Surfactants and Pesticide Residue Abatement

IR@CFTRI: CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore

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Relation http://ir.cftri.com/12610/
 
Title Microbial Surfactants and Pesticide Residue Abatement
 
Creator Karanth, N. G. K.
Anu Appaiah, K. A.
 
Subject 26 Pesticide Chemistry
04 Microbiology
 
Description Elimination of pesticide residues from food has become important and has evoked immense interest in recent research. It is now established that microbes have an indirect role in this, as they are capable of degrading pesticides into inorganic innocuous end products. In the process of degradation, transport and delivery of lipophylic pesticide molecules to the degradation Site becomes the rate limiting step. Recent studies indicate that bacteria produce surfactants to overcome such limitations. Even though microbial surfactants are widely used in industries such as petroleum (MEOR), textiles, food processing and mining, their use in the field of pesticide abatement is not yet explored. Investigations of Patel and Gopinathan (1986) on organophosphatic pesticides show that microbial surfactants may have a role in pesticide metabolism. We, at CFTRI, have reported the first microbial surfactant for solid organochlorine Insecticides from HCH degrading Pseudomonas Ptm+ strain. The biosurfactant not ooy disperses the pesticide molecules into micellar fractions to promote insecticide degradation, bul also acts as a cleaning agent and removes residues from fruits, vegetables, grains and soil. Toxicological evaluation of the surfactant In rats has revealed that these molecules are nontoxic to mammals. Fermentor studies for large-scale production of HCH specific biosurfactant indicate that microbial biosurfactants can be good candidates for industrial exploitation and pesticide residue abatement, thereby making the environment better for living.
 
Date 1994
 
Type Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://ir.cftri.com/12610/1/Microbes%20for%20better%20living%201994.pdf
Karanth, N. G. K. and Anu Appaiah, K. A. (1994) Microbial Surfactants and Pesticide Residue Abatement. In: 35th AMI Conference, 9-12 Nov 1994.