PRODUCTION OF POLYHYDROXYBUTERATE (PHB) FROM INDUSTERIAL WASTE

Biodegradable polymers are of reasonable medical and agricultural applications nowadays. Samples from various natural environments in South Riyadh area, Saudi Arabia, were screened for microorganisms that are capable of producing poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4- hydroxybutyrate). A total of 50 isolates were collected and two out of those were identified as possible PHA producers based on Nile red staining methods. The isolate NG-2 obtained in this study was cultivated in MSM containing date palm syrup as inexpensive carbon source for economic production. Moreover, PHA was extracted from the NG-2 isolate and analyzed by IR followed by electron microscope to confirm the capability of producing PHB. Efforts have been paid to determine the optimal condition of the culture growth and its biodegradation activity. It was found that despite of the type of the polymer-containing media used, the optimum incubation temperature for the tested microorganism was 37°C, while pH value of 7.2 resulted in the best growth pattern in date palm syrup at concentration of 8 % containing media.
Our major goal is to develop biodegradable drug carriers as effective drug delivery systems that release particular nutrient or drug at a particular site. This biotechnology of biological delivery has a unique physiochemical and mechanical properties help in field of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical targeting. This sort of nanotechnology will appear in subsequent works.