Production of Poly Hydroxybutyrate from Bacillus megaterium and its Conjugation with Nanoparticles to Determine the Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

Plastics have become an important part of modern life and are used in different sectors of operations like packaging, building materials, consumer products etc. Presently plastics and synthetic polymers are mainly produced by using the petrochemical material that cannot be decomposed easily. Thus they contribute to the environmental pollution. The increased cost of solid waste disposal as well as the potential hazards from incineration of wastes makes synthetic plastic waste management a problem. Hence biodegradable plastics have emerged as a useful alternative to overcome the environmental pollution. Bioplastics or organic plastics are a form of plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable oil, corn starch, pea starch, or micro biota, rather than fossil-fuel plastics which are derived from petroleum. Poly Hydroxy Butyrate (PHB) is one of the biodegradable materials which have physical properties similar to the synthetic plastic. The present work is aimed to produce the PHB from Bacillus megaterium and its conjugation with gold and platinum nano particles synthesized from leaves extract of Cassia auriculata. Finally the antibacterial activity of the PHB and PHB nano conjugate against human pathogen was studied. The study resulted that the activity of PHB-nano conjugates exhibit good activity.