Biosorption of heavy metals by a marine bacterium

Heavy metal chelation property of exopolysaccbaride produced by Enterobacter cloaceae, a marine bacterium, isolated from the West Coast of India, is reported in this paper. The exopolysaccharide demonstrated excellent chelating properties with respect to cadmium (65%) followed by copper (20%) and cobalt (8%) at 100 mg/l heavy metal concentration. However, it could not chelate mercury. A comparative study of the percentage biosorption of the above mentioned metals is presented here. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.