Screening for biosurfactant and bioemulsifier production
Isolates were cultivated on the enrichment medium containing diesel oil as the sole carbon source at 30 1C for 7days using the enrichment conditions. The medium was centrifuged (7000 rpm for 20 min) and the surface tension of the cell-free culture broth was measured with a TS90000 surface tensiometer (Nima, Coventry, England) as a qualitative
indicator of biosurfactant production. The culture broth was collected with a Pasteur pipette to remove the non-emulsified hydrocarbons. The emulsifying capacity was evaluated by an emulsification index ðE24Þ. The E24 of culture samples was
determined by adding 2mL of diesel oil to the same amount of culture, mixed for 2 min with a vortex mixer and allowed to stand for 24 h. E24 index is (mm) divided by the total height of the liquid column (mm) (Iqbal et al., 1995). Measurements
were also conducted with cell-free supernatants.