Antimicrobial and anti-adhesive potential of a biosurfactant Rufisan produced by Candida lipolytica UCP 0988.

In the last years, researches developed with biosurfactants for application in the medical area have been revealing the promising biological activities of these biomolecules. In this work the antimicrobial and anti-adhesive properties of a biosurfactant Rufisan isolated from the yeast Candida lipolytica UCP 0988, growth in a medium supplemented with ground nut refinery residue was determined against several microorganisms. The biosurfactant was able to reduce the water surface tension from 70 to 25.3 mN/m and showed a critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 0.03%. The biosurfactant was isolated after 72 h of fermentation and was tested in concentrations varying from 0.75 to 12 mg/l. The highest antimicrobial activities were observed against Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus mutans NS, Streptococcus mutans HG, Streptococcus sanguis 12, Streptococcus oralis J22 at a concentration superior to the biosurfactant critical micelle concentration. Moreover, the biosurfactant showed anti-adhesive activity against most of the microorganisms tested. As far as we know, this is the first compilation of data on antimicrobial and anti-adhesive activities of a biosurfactant obtained from a Candida strain against such a broad group of microorganisms. The results obtained in this work showed that the biosurfactant from C. lipolytica is a potential antimicrobial and/or anti-adhesive agent for several biomedical applications.