Scale-up studies for production of α-amylase by A. Tamarii MTCC5152 and development of enzyme product

Abstract

α-amylases are one of the most vital commercially produced starch hydrolyzing enzymes. Increasing enzyme production is becoming one of the most important goals in biotechnological processes. In this study, the production of α-amylase by A.tamarii MTCC5152 in flask level studies is experimentally validated by scale-up studies in Koji room under controlled conditions using wheat bran, a low cost agro-industrial waste as substrate. The production of amylase was increased by optimising various culture conditions such as inoculum size, incubation period and moisture content. It was found that A.tamarii MTCC5152 produced highest titre of α-amylase activity (668.01 u/g), after 4 days of incubation period at 5% inoculum concentration and 80% moisture content. The results of the comparative analysis of protease and amylase production demonstrated 15% increase in α- amylase and 20% increase in protease production compared to flask level studies. Studies conducted for the development of enzyme products as liquid enzyme concentrate and dry enzyme powder showed that addition of hydrophilic agents such as poly ethylene glycol (PEG- 6000) was found to be an effective way to increase the activity and enzyme yield in the preparation of a dry enzyme powder using A.tamarii MTCC5152. The ammonium sulfate precipitated enzyme at saturation, lyophilized by freeze drying gave the best recovery (96%) of the enzyme activity.