Production of Emulsan Biopolymers from Agro-based Feedstocks.

PANILAITIS BRUCE,; CASTRO, GUILLERMO; SOLAIMAN D.; KAPLAN DAVID L.

Journal of Applied Bacteriology

Blackwell

Año: 2006 vol. 102 p. 531 - 537

0021-8847

Aims: The need for biocompatible, biodegradable, and versatile biopolymerspermeates many fields including environmental and food technology. The goalof the study presented here is to establish the utility of agricultural oils as aninexpensive carbon source to produce materials useful for biomedical materialsand offer positive attributes in terms of green chemistry.Methods and Results: Structural variants of the complex acylated polysaccharide,emulsan, secreted from Acinetobacter venetianus RAG-1, were biosynthesizedin cultures supplemented with agricultural feedstocks to examine thefeasibility of conversion of these substrates into value-added biopolymers.Acinetobacter venetianus produced chemically and biologically distinct emulsanvariants in culture on soy molasses and tallow oil. These variants possess significantbiological function, including macrophage activation and adjuvant activity,in similar range to that observed for the standard emulsan formed onethanol-fed A. venetianus.Conclusions: The results indicate that this novel family of biopolymers can beproduced in significant quantities from the readily available renewable agriculturalfeedstocks and the resulting structures and functions can be correlated tothe chemistry of these feedstocks.Significance and Impact of the Study: The significant quantities of agriculturaloils produced annually represent an untapped source for bioconversion tovaluable products. The results of this study confirm that the important polymeremulsan can be synthesized from this inexpensive carbon source.