PRODUCTION OF ALPHA AMYLASES BY ASPERGILLUS NIGER USING CHEAPERSUBSTRATES EMPLOYING SOLID STATE FERMENTATION

Four fungal isolates from soil were screened for alpha amylase production and the isolate MJSU1101 later identified as Aspergillus niger was found to have best activity among all the four isolates. Growth of Aspergillus niger was found to be optimum at 28°C and pH 6.2. SSF was carried out using four substrates namely wheat bran, rice husk, vegetable waste (potato, tomato, brinjal) and banana peel. Alpha amylase produced using all the four substrates was having good activity but wheat bran as a substrate was the best giving an activity of 0.08U/ml/min followed by vegetable waste (0.06U/ml/min), banana peels (0.05U/ml/min) and rice husk (0.045U/ml/min).