Hypochlorite digestion method for efficient recovery of PHB from Alcaligenes faecalis.

We reported the optimum amount of PHB accumulated by Alcaligenes faecalis during its 24 h growth under nitrogen deficient conditions. After 24 h incubation decrease in the amount of PHB was recorded. Hypochlorite digestion of biomass of organism followed by extraction with a solvent system consisting of 1:1 mixture of ethanol and acetone resulted in efficient recovery of PHB vis-à-vis earlier methods. This solvent system gave a high recovery yield, i.e. 5.6 gL(-1) vis-à-vis earlier reported yield, 1.34 gL(-1) (by same method), 0.63 gL(-1) (by chloroform extraction method) and 1.1 gL(-1) (by dispersion method).