Record Details

Microbial Surfactants and Pesticide Residue Abatement

IR@CSIR-CFTRI

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
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
 
Rights —
 
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.