A study on biochemical changes during cultivation of Rhizopus oryzae in deproteinized whey medium in relation to chitosan production

作者：Chatterjee S^*; Guha A K

来源：Letters in Applied Microbiology, 2014, 59(2): 155-160.

DOI：10.1111/lam.12259

• biochemical oxygen demand
• chitosan
• cultivation
• fungus
• Rhizopus oryzae
• whey

The kinetics of cultivation of zygomycete filamentous fungus Rhizopus oryzae in deproteinized whey medium in relation to chitosan production was studied here to optimize chitosan production from R. oryzae as well as utilize whey, a by-product of sweetmeat industry as a cheap source of sugar in the cultivation process. Chitosan content of R. oryzae biomass was found to be increased with time during cultivation and reached maximum (13.6%) after 72 h and then declined steadily. Maximum 1.13 g of chitosan was obtained from one litre of deproteinized whey medium. Concentration of lactose in the medium was observed to be reduced from 45.0 to 11.7 g l(-1) during cultivation resulting in decrease in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of whey by approx. 60%, and this was important from environmental point of view before discharging whey into any water body. However, no significant change in pH or titratable acidity was noted during the entire course of cultivation, probably due to good buffering capacity of the medium. Molecular weight of chitosan varied from 130 to 230 kDa depending on the time of cultivation, but no significant change in degree of deacetylation of chitosan (approx. 87%) was found during cultivation.

• 出版日期2014-8
• 单位南阳理工学院