The ability of Candida bombicola ATCC 22214 to produce sophorolipids using Turkish corn oil and honey was investigated. Shake flask experiments were carried out both with and without the addition of glucose as the second carbon source. The organism could produce sophorolipids under both conditions but higher production was obtained when corn oil was combined with glucose. The 3 L bioreactor was first operated in batch mode, using both corn oil and glucose. When all the glucose was consumed, 1/4th of the broth was pumped out and was replaced by freshly prepared medium containing 10 % [w/v] of cheap market honey as the sole carbon source. Feed was comprised of corn oil. High concentrations of sophorolipids (> 400 g/L) were produced. The crude products obtained from the batch cultivation could be solidified as very light brown solids when unused oil was removed by hexane, while the products of the two‐stage cultivation remained as viscous, honey‐like liquids after identical treatments.

Sophorolipids, obtained by a two-stage process starting from deproteinized whey concentrate using Cryptococcus curvatus ATCC 20509 and Candida bombicola ATCC 22214, were compared to products from one-stage processes, using different lipidic compounds as substrates. Results showed that above all carbon source and not cultivation conditions had a distinct influence on the composition of the crude product mixture and therefore on the physicochemical and biological properties of the sophorolipids, such as, for example, surface activity, cytotoxicity and stability against hydrolases. The results were completed by corresponding data for purified mono- and diacetylated (17-hydroxyoctadecenoic)-1',4"-lactonized sophorolipids. Crude sophorolipid mixtures showed moderate to good surface active properties (SFTmin 39 mN m-1, CMC 130 mg l-1), water solubilities (2-3 g l-1) and low cytotoxicities (LC50 300-700 mg l-1). In contrast, purified sophorolipids were more surface active (SFTmin 36 mN m-1, CMC 10 mg l-1), less water soluble (max. 70 mg l-1) and showed stronger cytotoxic effects (LC50 15 mg l-1). Incubation of crude sophorolipid mixtures with different hydrolases demonstrated that treatment with commercially available lipases such as from Candida rugosa and Mucor miehei distinctly reduced the surface active properties of the sophorolipids, while treatment with porcine liver esterase and glycosidases had no effect.

BACKGROUND: Olive oil production is an important economical activity in the Aegean region of Turkey. However, the effluents of the olive oil producing mills with their high organic loads and toxic compounds are causing serious environmental problems. The anaerobic biological treatment of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) using the treatment plants of the regional industries could be a method of choice and within the scope of this study floccular and granular sludges were investigated in batch mode for their success in the treatment of OMWW while producing biogas.The major limitation of this treatment is the inhibition of methanogenic bacteria by the phenolic compounds in OMWW. Thus an integrated solution was suggested in which a pre-treatment step (dephenolization) was also introduced before biological step.

The quantification of free and total alkannins in 13 endemic Anatolian Alkanna species is described for the first time. Extraction of the samples was performed by sonication with hexane, followed by hydrolysis in 1 N NaOH. For analysis, a new HPLC method, utilizing reversed phase material (Synergi Max RP), was developed and successfully validated. The obtained data confirmed that the assay is sensitive (LOD of 13 ng on-column for alkannin), accurate (the recovery rate was 92.3%) and precise (RSD

The potential of a recently isolated wood-degrading fungus, Trichophyton rubrum LSK-27, for effective decolorization of textile azo dyes was evaluated. Within two days of dye addition, the fungus was able to decolorize 83% of Remazol Tiefschwarz, 86% of Remazol Blue RR and 80% of Supranol Turquoise GGL in liquid cultures. The reactive dyes, Remazol Tiefschwarz and Remazol Blue, were removed by fungal biodegradation, while decolorization of the acid dye, Supranol Turquoise GGL, was accomplished mainly by bioadsorption. Therefore the fungus proved to be efficiently capable of both biodegradation and biosorption as the major dye removal mechanisms. The extent of biodegradation was associated with the levels of the extracellular ligninolytic enzymes such as manganese peroxidase and laccase.