Production of Green biocides for cultural heritage- novel biotechnological solutions

Abstract

The growth control of microflora in cultural and built heritage is usually performed by treatments using chemicals that have high toxicity. Thus it is crucial to develop strategies to discover new bioactive molecules and establish effective approaches against the effectively biodeteriogenic agents, which are responsible for degradation of cultural and built heritage, without detriment to the environment. Bacillus sp. produce a high number of secondary metabolites, some with antibiotic properties which can be used against biodeteriogenic filamentous fungi, source of serious damage in historic materials. These antagonistic proprieties are due to the production of bioactive lipopeptides which exhibit antifungal activity in the stationary phase of bacteria growth, being associated to secondary metabolism. A combined methodology using antifungal tests, chromatographic techniques, FTIR-ATR, microscopic approaches and simulations assays allowed the detection of antifungal potential and a rapid identification of these ground-breaking bioactive compounds without the need of previous total isolation. This novel green biocides show a great potential for future application in cultural and built heritage rehabilitation being an effective alternative to the chemical compounds usually applied.