Actinobacteria in biodegradation as a promising solution for rubber degradation

The study involves the use of Natural Rubber Degrading Actinobacteria isolated from rubber plantation soil for the degradation of the artificial rubber. Plate assay method by mineral salt medium was followed for the screening of bacteria for knowing its capacity to mineralize the rubber. Degradation of the rubber was confirmed by Schiffs and Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) studies. The cultures were able to utilize the artificial rubber which was confirmed by Schiffs test and FTIR studies. Actinobacteria have the capacity to mineralize artificial rubber. In the current investigation it can be concluded that the Actinobacteria cultures have the capacity to mineralize artificial rubber. Hence such isolated cultures can be used in removal of artificial rubber wastes from the as well as other utilities. it also discharge waste and effluents (Leong et al.,2003)Waste water is an unavoidable by product of rubber processing: whatever processing environment. The major users of natural rubber are tire and footwear industries.Natural rubber processing sector consumes large volumes of water and energy and uses large amount of chemicals procedures are used for preparing products from latex, there will always be an aqueous liquid as a byproduct (Rungruang and babel,2008). The high level of ammonia and other plant nutrients make it a good medium for th algal growth,thus resulting in the eutrophication of water bodies. Rubber effluents from rubber processing have been known to support microbial growth (Atagana et al 1999a;Bode et al 2001;Cherian and Jayachandran, 2009).