April Journal-2009.p65 - Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy

Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy
Vol. 3 (2) 172-180, April 2009. ISSN 0973-8916
Production of á-amylase from agricultural byproducts by
Humicola lanuginosa in solid state fermentation
Ravi Kant Singh* a , Shashi Kumar b , and Surendra Kumar b
a
Department of Biotechnology, IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad, U.P. India
b
Chemical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, Uttarakhand, India
*For correspondence - rksingh.iitr@hotmail.com
Abstract
In this study α-amylase activity
expression in Humicola lanuginosa was
evaluated under different environmental
conditions using solid state fermentation (SSF)
on different agricultural byproducts. The solid
supports for α-amylase production in SSF process
were wheat bran, wheat straw, rye straw, and
corncob leaf. Wheat bran has been found to yield
maximum production of á-amylase among these
solid substrates. Effects of process variables,
namely incubation time & temperature, initial
moisture content, pH, supplementary carbon
source, and inoculum level, on production of α -
amylase have been studied, and accordingly
optimum conditions have been determined. It has
been found that the á-amylase production is the
highest at 144 hr incubation period, 50ºC
incubation temperature, 90% initial moisture
contents, pH of 6 and 20% inoculum level. Soluble
starch has been found the best supplementary
carbon source.
Key words: solid state fermentation, Humicola
lanuginosa, agricultural byproducts, α–amylase,
process optimization, solid support.
Introduction
Enzyme production is an emerging field
of biotechnology. At industrial scale, most of the
enzymes are manufactured by submerged
fermentation (SmF) techniques. However, in the
last decades, there has been an increasing trend
towards the utilization of the solid state
fermentation (SSF) technique to produce several
enzymes from thermophilic microorganisms (1-
8). Few important advantages of solid state
fermentation (SSF) over the traditionally employed
submerged fermentation (SmF) are higher yields
in a shorter time period, better oxygen circulation,
resemblance to natural habitats for filamentous
fungi, less effects in downstream processing, and
low energy consumption (9).
Amylases are a group of enzymes that
have been found in several microorganisms like
bacteria (1,2,10,11) and fungi (3,12). α-amylases
can be derived from plants, animals and microbes
but its production from microbial sources are cost
effective and fulfill the industrial demands. The
large number of α- amylases are available
commercially and they have almost completely
replaced chemical hydrolysis of starch (13).
Amylases are useful in a broad range of industrial
applications which include food, fermentation,
textile and paper industries.
Fungal α-amylases are produced by
different fermentation techniques. Production of
these α-amylases has been investigated through
submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid state
Production of á-amylase