eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2016-05-06 7 2 901 906 9441 article K. Moorthy et al 1,2,3,4 Department of Microbiology, Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women, Elayampalyam, Tiruchengode- 637 205 (India). Department of Biotechnology, Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women, Elayampalyam, Tiruchengode - 637 205 (India). Department of Bioinformatics, Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women, Elayampalyam, Tiruchengode - 637 205 (India). Department of Microbiology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli - 620 024 (India). The study was conducted to identify the capability of the bacterial strains to degrade the crude oil in in vitro conditions. The soil samples were collected from oil contaminated sites at Aravakurichy, Karur district, Tamilnadu. Soil samples were used to analyze the moisture content, temperature, pH, total nitrogen, phosphorous, BOD and COD. From the soil sample , three dominant bacterial strains were isolated viz, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and KIebsiella pneumoniae. The isolates were screened for its ability to degrade crude oil and all the isolates showed maximum degradation. The degrading ability was higher in liquid medium when compared to solid media. Among the three isolated bacterial strains, P. aeruginosa showed higher degrading ability than the other two isolates. A detailed analysis of the hydrocarbon extract was performed by Gas Chromatography. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol7no2/isolation-of-soil-bacteria-for-bioremediation-of-hydrocarbon-contamination/ Xenobiotics; bioremediation; hydrocarbon soil bacteria