Biodiversity and Sustainability are the Two Prime Conservative Factors Leading us towards SDG’s 2030-Surfactin Point of View

Surfactin is a biosurfactant produced by bacterial species Bacillus subtilis. Biosurfactants are amphiphilic in nature that are used in enhanced oil recovery, paints and cosmetics industry, food processing industry, production of industrially viable products and also used as potential bioremediators. The high cost and low yield of surfactin limits their usage to narrow extent inspite of their efficiency compared to chemical surfactants. Bacillus subtilis is a PGPR that can solubilize zinc as well as phosphorous that are beneficial to plant growth. When biosurfactant producing strains are used as biofertilisers, surface tension reduction capability of these bacteria increases the bioavailability of nutrients in the rhizosphere as well as less water intake by the roots. Most of the Bacillus sp. are amylase and protease enzyme producers that can help the enhanced growth of plants. This study utilized Arthospira platensis commonly called as Spirulina a blue green algae rich in polysaccharides, lipids and aminoacids as a potential substrate for surfactin a lipopeptide production, after thermal pretreatment at 120degrees heating for 30 minutes.LB broth with 2% glucose was used as comparison for surfactin production. LB broth with no inoculum served as the control. Spirulina concentration was optimized by testing the production medium with 1%, 2.5%,5%,7%(w/v) dry powder at optimum pH7.2 with two strains of Bacillus subtilis -MTCC1427 and recombinant strain MTCC2423 at 37 degrees at 150rpm. The optimum concentration of the microalgae was found to be 2.5% (w/v). Cost benefit analysis was done for the process which proved Arthospira platensis to be an economical and cost effective substrate that led to enhanced surfactin production leading us in sustainable pathway.