Abdelhakim Bourouba

Mr. Abdelhakim Bourouba

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Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

1Year (2026-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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8 September 2026 in Molecules
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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Abdelhakim BouroubaAbdelhakim Bourouba
Abdelhakim Bourouba
RARedha Alouaoui
Redha Alouaoui
SFSamira FERHAT
Samira FERHAT
Kamel BoubakriKamel Boubakri
Kamel Boubakri
DJDominika Jama
Dominika Jama
Tomasz JanekTomasz Janek
Tomasz Janek
Biosurfactants are environmentally friendly surface-active compounds with promising applications in environmental remediation. In this study, a biosurfactant-producing bacterium, Bacillus (B.) velezensis SHB.28, was isolated from heavy metal-contaminated soil and evaluated for its ability to produce biosurfactants using date syrup as a low-cost agro-industrial substrate. Screening assays including drop-collapse (DC), oil spreading (OS), and emulsification index after 24 h E24 (%) confirmed strong biosurfactant production. Culture conditions were optimized, revealing that 30 °C, pH 6, and a C/N ratio between 10% and 20% provided optimal production. Under optimized conditions, the crude biosurfactant extract yield reached 2.16 g/L within 24 h, accompanied by a reduction in surface tension from 69 to 29.1 dyn/cm and high emulsification activity. Kinetic modeling showed that emulsification activity followed an exponential growth model (R2 = 0.985), whereas surface tension dynamics were well described by a spike decay–plateau model (R2 = 0.998). Structural characterization using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry (ESI–MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy revealed that the biosurfactants are surfactin- and iturin-like cyclic lipopeptides composed of a β-hydroxy fatty acid chain (C13–C15) linked to a cyclic peptide moiety. The biosurfactant exhibited a critical micelle concentration of 100 mg/L and an anionic character with a pHpzc of 5.7. Furthermore, it demonstrated high efficiency in removing heavy metals, achieving removal efficiencies of 99.88% for Fe2+, 99.69% for Pb2+, and 94.72% for Cu2+, outperforming conventional surfactants such as SDS and Tween 80. These findings highlight the potential of date syrup-derived surfactin and iturin from B. velezensis SHB.28 as sustainable and efficient biosurfactants for environmental remediation and heavy metal removal applications.