• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.320-324
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• 2004

The objective of this study was investigate the characteristic of biosurfactant produced from the isolated strain. The strain was isolated from soil samples and identified as Bacillus sp. TBM 911-5 by physiological characteristics and the partial nucleotide sequence analysis of 16S rDNA. We measured the surface tension every 6 hours for 80 hours. The surface tension of the culture filtrate of Bacillus sp. TBM 911-5 was decreased to 29 mN/m. Biosurfactant concentration was determined by diluting the culture filtrate until the critical micelle concentration (CMC). The biosurfactant emulsified hydrocarbons, vegetable oil and crude oil. Using soybean oil as substrate, the maximum emulsification activity and stability was obtained from the biosurfactant. The biosurfactant produced from Bacillus sp. TBM 911-5 had strong properties as an emulsifying agent and an emulsion-stabilizing agent.