Influence of pretreatment of agriculture residues on phytase production by Aspergillus niger NCIM 563 under submerged fermentation conditions

The extracellular phytase production by Aspergillus niger NCIM 563 was evaluated in medium containing various agriculture residues under submerged fermentation conditions. Phytase productionwas affected by inorganic phosphate content of agriculture residues which ranged from 2.8 to 8 mg/g. The agriculture residues containing less than 4 mg/g inorganic phosphate supported phytaseproduction with maximum activity of 68 IU/ml in medium containing 1% rice bran on 11th day of fermentation. Addition of glucose up to 5% in fermentation medium containing 1% rice bran, enhancedphytase production. Pretreatment of agriculture residues with water to remove excess inorganic phosphate has significantly enhanced the phytase activity in case of de-oiled rice bran, wheat bran,peanut cake (low and high oil) and coconut cake. Maximum increase of 20.3 times in phytase activity was observed in case of wheat bran as compared to de-oiled rice bran, coconut cake, peanut cake highand low oil in which the increase in phytase activity was 6.85, 6.1, 5.3 and 3.0 times, respectively. Maximum phytase activity of 68 IU/ml was produced on the 11th day of fermentation compared to earlierreported 41.47 IU/ml phytase activity on the 15th day of submerged fermentation using 5% dextrin and 2.5% glucose, thus increasing productivity