Abstract
Worldwide, sugarcane industries produce tons of sugarcane bagasse as residual/waste material. This residual material is rich in complex lignocellulosic substances and may be used as a low cost carbon and energy source for the growth of fungal species. The present work was aimed at designing a sugarcane waste-based medium as a substitute for expensive commercial media for growing fungal cultures. Eight species of fungi, namely, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Fusarium sp., and four unidentified species F1, F2, F3, and F5, were grown on the sugarcane bagasse medium which produced remarkable results and competed with standard media like potato dextrose agar, Sabouraud dextrose agar, and cornmeal agar. The designed medium was able to provide nourishment to the fungi as well as prevent the growth of any bacterial or fungal contaminant. The production of spores was more in the sugarcane medium as compared with standard media. Hence, this study led to the discovery of a new and efficient medium for fungal cultures as well as decrease in the waste disposal expenses and efforts.
Highlights
The cost of all the microbiological media is rising at a fast pace
All the chemicals including sucrose, agar powder, potato dextrose agar, cornmeal agar, and Sabouraud dextrose agar were purchased from Himedia Laboratories, Mumbai, India
Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger were procured from Department of Microbiology, Shoolini Institute of Life Sciences and Business Management, Solan, India; Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Fusarium sp. were procured from Yeast Biology Lab, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences (SUBMS), Solan, India; and F1, F2, F3, and F5 were obtained from Plant Biotechnology Lab, SUBMS, Solan, India, as unidentified fungal growth on plant tissue culture media
Summary
The cost of all the microbiological media is rising at a fast pace. To tackle this problem some new microbiological media should be designed which are efficient as well as cost effective. The sugarcane stalk is crushed to extract sucrose [6] This procedure produces a large volume of residue (approximately 240 kg of bagasse with 50% humidity per ton of sugarcane) which contains both crushed rind and pith fibers [5, 7]. This sugarcane bagasse contains complex lignocellulosic material of which the more abundant component is cellulose (33– 36%), hemicellulose is the second predominant fraction (28– 30%), and lignin is 22% [5, 8]. The use of agriculture waste materials for the production of high value
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