TITLE:
Direct Solid-State Fermentation of Soybean Processing Residues for the Production of Fungal Chitosan by Mucor rouxii
AUTHORS:
Andro Mondala, Ramea Al-Mubarak, James Atkinson, Shaun Shields, Brian Young, Yurguen Dos Santos Senger, Jan Pekarovic
KEYWORDS:
Solid-State Fermentation, Fungal Chitosan, Biopolymers, Bioconversion, Agro-Industrial Residues
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Vol.3 No.2,
February
4,
2015
ABSTRACT: The feasibility of utilizing soybean-processing residues such as soybean meal and hulls as substrates
for chitosan production by the fungus Mucor rouxii ATCC 24905 via solid-state fermentation
(SSF) was investigated. The effects of the type of soybean-based substrate, length of cultivation
period, substrate moisture content, substrate pH, incubation temperature and extraction conditions
on chitosan yield were determined. The results showed that a maximum fungal chitosan
yield of up to 3.44% by dry substrate weight (34.4 g/kg) could be achieved using a pure soybean
meal substrate with an initial moisture content of 50% (w/w) and pH of 5 - 6 incubated for six
days at 25°C. A more severe heat treatment (autoclaving vs. refluxing) resulted in higher chitosan
extraction yields regardless of the strength of extraction reagents. Fourier transform infrared
(FTIR) analysis of the fungal chitosan revealed its degree of deacetylation (DDA) to be between
55% and 60%.