Preliminary studies on isolation of lipid-degrading bacteria from contaminated water

Abstract

The increase in human activities has caused water pollution, where more pollutants are released into the water. Lipid is one of the common substances that can be found in contaminated water. Lipid-degrading bacteria refer to bacterial strains that can produce lipase and break down the lipid. This study was conducted to isolate and screen lipid-degrading bacteria from contaminated water samples. Four potential lipid-degrading bacteria were isolated from contaminated seawater and pond water. The ability of bacteria strains in degrading lipids was tested by growing the bacteria on Rhodamine B agar. The colony that emits orange fluorescent indicates the presence of lipase activity. The rate of lipid degradation by the bacterial strain on olive oil and motorcycles oil was carried out using the liquid-liquid extraction method with chloroform and methanol as solvents. Strain T1 isolated from Teluk Batik, Malaysia seawater showed lipid-degradation activity and capable of degrading commercial olive oil and motorcycles oil at 75.59% and 85.43%, respectively.