Screening for pharmaceutically important exopolysaccharide producing Streptococci and partial optimization for EPS production

Capsular exopolysaccharide, hyaluronic acid produced by Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus, carries high importance in pharmaceutical as well as biomedical field. In this direction, isolation and screening for exopolysaccharide producing streptococcus from nasopharynx of horses from Maharashtra and its neighbouring place was carried out. Out of 70 samples, none was observed to be Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus while, exopolysaccharide producing BM2 was isolated which showed close association with Streptococcus dysgalactiae with potential to produce hyaluronic acid. BM2 was compared with Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (ATCC 43079), Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (MTCC 3523) which produced exopolysaccharide 0.052, 0.050 and 0.097 g/l respectively. Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (MTCC 3523) gave higher productivity; hence primary optimization studies were carried out to achieve maximum its growth and exopolysaccharide production.