యూరోపియన్ జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ఎక్స్‌పెరిమెంటల్ బయాలజీ అందరికి ప్రవేశం

నైరూప్య

Optimization of the medium for the production of cellulases by Aspergillus terreus and Mucor plumbeus

Padmavathi. T, Vaswati Nandy and Puneet Agarwal

Fungal cellulases are well-studied, and have various applications in industry, health or agriculture. The present paper investigates the isolation of marine fungi (Aspergillus terreus and Mucor plumbeus) for the production of cellulase using submerged fermentation technique. Ten different substrates such as rice bran, wheat bran, bamboo leaves, banana leaves, peepal leaves, sugar cane leaves, lantana leaves, ragi straw, maize leaves and eucalyptus leaves were collected from different parts of rural Bangalore (India) and were used as substrates for the cellulase production; of which lantana leaves gave best result. The fermentation experiments were carried out in Erlenmeyer flasks using pretreated Lantana leaves. Lantana leaves gave best enzyme activity of 213. 3IU/ ml and 206 IU/ ml by Aspergillus terreus and Mucor plumbeus respectively. Various parameters such as carbon source, nitrogen source, pH and incubation temperatures were studied for the production of cellulases. Incorporation of lantana as carbon source (660 IU/ ml), ammonium sulphate as nitrogen source, pH 3 (240. 07 IU/ ml) and incubation temperature at 37o C (100 IU/ ml) gave good enzyme yield with Aspergillus terreus and Mucor plumbeus respectively. The degree of saccharification was also assayed on the basis of amount of reducing sugar released. The percentage of saccharification with respect to lantana leaves in presence of Aspergillus terreus and Mucor plumbeus were found to be 56% and 28% respectively.