Vinasse as a source of compounds with antimicrobial activity

Abstract

The objective of this work is the isolation and investigation of the antibacterial activity of bacteria and compounds present in vinasse. Vinasse is a big problem in our country, due to the large amount of organic matter present in it and the volume in which it is generated. The inadequate disposal of sugarcane vinasse has received much attention since a long time ago, due to environmental problems associated to this practice and this is one of the organic wastes with the greatest polluting effect on flora and fauna. In this work was investigated the antibacterial efficiency of ethanolic extract of vinasse from Argentine, and bacteria isolated from this waste, against pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. All the isolated were assigned as presumed lactic acid bacteria, and the screening of the antimicrobial activity demonstrates that only 2 supernatants possess antibacterial activity against E. coli and Ps. aeruginosa, whereas ethanolic extract of vinasse showed antimicrobial activity against E. coli, Ps. aeruginosa and C. albicans Vinasse extract was more effective to inhibit the biofilm formation of E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. On the other hand, the addition of the extract combined with shaking on bacterial biofilm previously formed, removed the biofilm by both bacteria studied and the removal percentage increases with vinasse concentrations and with the stirring time. The biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa was more resistant at treatment compared with that biofilm formed by E.coli. The possible use of proposed treatment allows the vinasse to stop being a polluting agent and to become an abundant and raw material as antibacterial agent.