The Production of β-Glucuronidase from Various Bacteria

β-Glucuronidase is reported to be produced by certain kinds of enterobacteriaceae and suggested te be concerned with formation of bilirubin gallstone. But the studies on the kind of bacteria producing β-glucuronidase and the extent of β-glucuronidase activity have not been minutely examined. Therefore, we examined the production and activity of β-glucuronidase in various aerobic bacteria. In thirty-one species tested, β-glucuronidase was found in E. coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Staphylococcus epidermidis, but not in such species as Klebsiella, Serratia, Citrobacter, Proteus, fourteen species of glucose nonfermentative Gram-negative rods, and several species of Gram-positive bacteria. The activity of β-glucuronidase per bacterium produced by E. coli after twenty-four hours culture was about twenty times as strong as that by Enterobacter aerogenes.