Leslie Gunatilaka

Professor; Director, Natural Products Center

Publication:

Saini HS, Barragan-Huerta BE, Lebron-Paler A, Pemberto JE, Vazquez RR, Burns AM, Marron MT, Seliga CJ, Gunatilaka AAL, Maier RM. Oct 2008. Efficient purification of the biosurfactant viscosin from Pseudomonas libanensis Strain M9-3 and its physiochemical and biological properties. J Nat Prod, 71:1011-15

Abstract

Viscosin (1), an effective surface-active cyclic lipopeptide, was efficiently recovered from Pseudomonas libanensis M9-3 with a simple purification protocol. A major pigment also obtained during this process was identified as phenazine-1-carboxylic acid. The critical micelle concentration (cmc) of viscosin was determined to be 54 mg L (-1), and the minimum surface tension between air and water at the cmc was 28 mN m (-1). Viscosin forms stable emulsions even at low concentrations (7.5 mg L (-1)), and the conditional stability constant for a cadmium-viscosin complex was determined to be 5.87. The physicochemical properties measured for viscosin are similar to other well-studied biosurfactants such as rhamnolipid and surfactin. Viscosin inhibited migration of the metastatic prostate cancer cell line, PC-3M, without visible toxicity. These properties suggest the potential of viscosin in environmental and biomedical applications.

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