Articles Related to Palm Oil

Aim: Palm oil processing generally generates lots of wastewater (palm oil mill effluent), this is usually discharged into the environment in the untreated form and subsequently causes several environmental issues. There is therefore need to isolate microorganisms that can be used to clean up the palm oil contaminated environment especially the soil. Methods and Results: Palm oil contaminated soil was obtained from Oba Adeyemi palm oil mill in Oyo, Oyo State, Nigeria, other soil samples which were purposely contaminated with palm oil, were obtained from Ajayi Crowther University Oyo, Oyo State. Isolation, characterization and identification of microorganisms were carried out using morphological and biochemical characterization. The isolates were preliminarily screened for lipolytic activities, this was confirmed by growth on the mineral salt medium after 7 days, signifying hydrolysis. One of the prominent isolates was further identified by sequences analysis of 16S rRNA genes. Forty-one bacterial isolates were identified, which included species of Bacillus (80 %), Pseudomonas (20 %) in the oil mill contaminated soil sample and Bacillus spp. (100 %) in the purposely contaminated soils. Twenty-nine fungal isolates including species of Aspergillus, Oidiodendron, Geotrichum, Penicillum, Saccharomyces were isolated with Aspergillus fumigatus having the highest frequency of occurrence (37.5 %) in artificially contaminated soil and Saccharomyces spp. having the highest frequency of occurrence (91 %) in palm oil contaminated soil from the palm oil mill. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA of one of the prominent isolates showed that it was identified as MN607220 Saccharomyces cerevisae. All the bacterial and fungal isolates had lipolytic activities except Bacillus mycoides and Oidiodendron sp. respectively. Nine of the ten Saccharomyces sp. had lipolytic activities. Conclusion: These screened organisms could therefore be employed for the cleanup of palm oil contamination in the environment. Significance and Impact of Study: Thereby ridding the environment of possible toxic effects especially in areas of need like Malaysia

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