Fruit waste utilisation for pectinase production through soild state fermentation

Abstract

Enzymes are proteinaceous biocatalysts known for their high selectivity and specificity and are active under mild temperature and pressure conditions, which enable their effective use in food processing to modify, alter and enhance quality of food. Among the different enzymes used in fruit and vegetable processing industries, pectinase occupy prime position. The present study "Fruit waste utilisation for pectinase production through solid state fermentation" was taken up for analysing the possibilities of producing pectinase from fruit and vegetable wastes. Isolation, pure culturing and initial screening of microorganisms for their efficiency for pectinase production on media containing pectin resulted in selection of two fungi (Trichoderma harzianum and BSF I) and two bacteria (BBI and Pseudomonas jluorescens). The ideal solid pectin medium for better growth of selected microorganisms was standardised. The efficiency of bacteria to grow on media containing different wastes was found poor, where as the fungi grew fast. The fungus Aspergillus foetidus 115 exhibited maximum growth and production of pectinase on all waste media in solid state fermentation as well as in submerged state fermentation. The activity of this microorganism was high when inoculated on grape waste medium, which was evidenced through banana juice clarification studies. Among Trichoderma harzinum and BSFJ, the formar found to have better efficiency for fermentation of wastes for pectinase production. The ideal fruit waste medium (5g waste, O.75g urea, O.3g ammomum sulphate) and optimum condition for fermentation (temperature 40°C, extraction at eight days after inoculation using extractant distilled water) for ssf of fruit wastes for maximum enzyme production were standardised, through analysing the pectin esterase activity in crude enzyme extract taken from different media.