Production and investigation of the physico-chemical properties of MEL-A from glycerol and coconut water.

This work reports the production of MEL-A using coconut water as the carbon source. Proximate analysis of coconut water indicated the presence of nutrients necessary for growth of the organism and production of desired metabolite. The amount of MEL produced using coconut water was 3.85 g/L (± 0.35) with 74% of it being MEL-A when compared to 2.58 g/L (± 0.15) with 60% being MEL-A using glycerol, a conventional carbon source. MEL-A from coconut water consisted of 38.1% long-chain saturated fatty acids (C16:0 and C18:0) whereas with glycerol it was 9.6%. The critical micellar concentration of the biosurfactant from coconut water was 2.32 ± 0.21 µM when compared to 4.41 ± 0.25 µM from glycerol. The stability of O/W emulsion was reduced by 50% and 90% after incubation for 8 h in the case of MEL-A from coconut water and glycerol respectively when compared to synthetic surfactant, Tween-20. MEL-A from both the sources exhibited free radical scavenging activity (DPPH assay) in a dose-dependent manner wherein MEL-A from coconut water showed two fold higher activity than the other. The interaction of coconut water MEL-A with DPPC for drug encapsulation applications was also studied. The DSC measurements showed the differences in the interaction of drugs with DPPC/MEL-A liposome. The differences were also observed in the solubility of drugs after encapsulation with DPPC/MEL-A liposome.