STM Article Repository

Vegetable oil Spills are becoming frequent and are potentially more challenging than petroleum
hydrocarbon spills. Microbial lipases occupy a place of prominence among biocatalysts are often used
for remediation of vegetable oil-polluted sites. This work was carried out to isolate microorganisms
from oil-polluted sites and screen them for their lipolytic activity. Microorganisms were isolated from
eight experimental soil samples contaminated with different types of vegetable oil, soil from an oil mill
in Ibadan, and normal uncontaminated soil as a control concurrently soil samples was also collected
from a palm oil mill in Oyo town. The isolates were characterized, identified and those common to at
least one of the experimental sites and oil mill sites were screened for their lipolytic activity. Data
obtained were analysed using Duncan Multiple Range Test. Seventy three microorganisms were
isolated from the polluted soil and identified as species of Bacillus (16), Pseudomonas (12),
Flavobacterium (6), Alcaligenes (2), Proteus (3), Micrococcus (1), Aspergillus (9), Penicillium (6),
Saccharomyces (4), Geotrichum (1), Kluveromyces (1). Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis,
Pseudomonas cepacia, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Flavobacterium sp., Alcaligenes sp. and Candida
parapsilosis which were common to at least one of the experimental site and oil mill site in Ibadan
were preliminarily screened for lipolytic activity and all nine confirmed by presence of halos around the
colonies also Aspergillus niger, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis,
Bacillus cereus, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus pumilus and Saccharomyces cerevisae which were also
preliminarily screened. These screened organisms have potential for the degradation of fatty waste.
They could therefore be employed in environmental clean-up of vegetable oil spill site.