Musaalbakri Abdul Manan

Nutritional Requirements for the Improvement of Growth and Sporulation of Several Strains of Monascus purpureus on Solid State Cultivation

This paper describes the nutritional requirements for the improvement of growth and sporulation of several strains of Monascus purpureus on solid state cultivation. The findings revealed that glucose enhanced growth of all M. purpureus strains tested but inhibited the sporulation rate. On the other hand, sucrose induced sporulation but inhibited production of cell mass. A combination of glucose and sucrose greatly enhanced sporulation and cell mass production of M. purpureus. Although growth and sporulation rate were related to the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C/N ratio), the types and concentrations of carbon and nitrogen sources also greatly influenced the growth kinetics. Among the media tested, Hiroi-PDA medium was the most preferred medium for all M. purpureus strains tested for the enhancement of radial growth rate, sporulation, and cell production. Hence, Hiroi-PDA could be suggested as the generic basal medium for the cultivation of M. purpureus. However, individual medium optimization is required for significant enhancement in growth and sporulation of each strain of M. purpureus.

Assessment of Monacolin in the Fermented Products Using Monascus purpureus FTC5391

Monacolins, as natural statins, form a class of fungal secondary metabolites and act as the specific inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase. The interest in using the fermented products as the natural source of monacolins, instead of statin drugs, is increasing enormously with its increasing demand. In this study, the fermented products were produced by Monascus purpureus FTC5391 using submerged and solid state fermentations. Two commercial Monascus-fermented products were also evaluated for comparison. Improved methods of monacolins extraction and identification were developed for the assessment of monacolins in the fermented products. Methanol and ethanol were found to be the most favorable solvents for monacolins extraction due to their ability to extract higher amount of monacolin K and higher numbers of monacolin derivatives. Problem related to false-positive results during monacolins identification was solved by adding monacolin lactonization step in the assessment method. Using this improved method, monacolin derivatives were not detected in all Monascus-fermented products tested in this study, suggesting that their hypocholesterolemic effects may be due to other compounds other than monacolins.

Estimating fungal growth in submerged fermentation in the presence of solid particles based on colour development

ABSTRACT This study examines and evaluates a colourimetric technique that could be implemented as a real-time continuous monitoring system for fungal culture growth in submerged fermentation (SmF) with the presence of solid particles. Fungal SmF of Aspergillus awamori and Aspergillus oryzae was carried out on complex heterogeneous solid media: wheat bran, soybean hull and rapeseed meal, which were constituted of various soluble and insoluble solid particles. As a comparison, another set of experiments in SmF using synthetic medium was carried out. The theory of measuring colour changes in SmF by UV-Vis spectroscopy demonstrates that this colourimetric technique provides valuable information complementary to visual observations. Typical normalized UV absorption spectra were obtained using a scanning spectrophotometer for each colour solution. These demonstrated that samples used in this work have very similar patterns. The typical normalized optical density spectra show a local absorbance maximum near 300 nm, a region where colour absorbance rapidly increases. It was suggested that the colour developed during the progress of fermentation is closely related to either or both of the growth and the actual biomass of the fungus. The findings show that colour-based methods seem to be the most promising approach for biomass estimation in SmF in the presence of solid particles.

The Morphology and Structure of Red Pigment Producing Fungus: Monascus Purpureus

Thered pigment producing, ascospore forming fungus Monascus purpureuswas obtained by monospore isolation and maintained on potato dextrose agar at 32°C for 7 days. M. purpureusproduces compact colonies of mycelia and accumulates large quantities of red pigment. Here we aimed to describe this newly isolated red pigment producing fungus using biochemical and microscopy technique. A newly isolated red pigment producing fungus from local red fermented rice was identified using Microbial Identification System based on fatty acids profiles.The growth, morphology, and structure of M. purpureuswere characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SME). We found that M. purpureusreproduces sexually (by the formation of cleistothecium with ascospores) and asexual (by the formation of conidia). In Monascusspecies, the formation of either asexual or sexual spores appears to be an effective growth strategy. On the basis of biochemical and all morphological investigations it could be concluded that the new strain isolated from red fermented rice belongs to species M. purpureus, labeled as M. purpureus FTCC 5391.

Proximate and amino acids composition of Monascus fermented products with potential as functional feed ingredients

Abstract Proximate and amino acid composition have been studied from solid state fermentation (SSF) process of broken rice, rice husk pineapple waste and pressed coconut flesh with Monascus purpureus FTCC 5391. The main nutrients analyzed after the fermentation are protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber, ash, and gross energy. Monascus fermented products (MFPs) that are known as red fermented broken rice (RFBR), red fermented rice husk (RFRH), red fermented pineapple waste (RFPW) and red fermented pressed coconut flesh (RFCF) have shown increment of protein, fiber and ash while decline of carbohydrate after SSF process. Among all the MFPs, protein content in RFBR (21.22%) had increase 2.3-fold that the highest increment. The calculated gross energy was 456.22, 337.0, 376.76 and 504.4 kcal/100 g for RFBR, RFRH, RFPW and RFCF, respectively. The HPLC analysis indicated the presence of 18 amino acids (Asp, Glu, Ser, Gly, His, Arg, Thr, Ala, Pro, Tyr, Val, Met, Cys, Ile, Leu, Phe, Trp, Lys). Amino acids analysis also indicated that MFPs contained high amount of essential amino acids namely threonine, methionin and lysine that are very important in feed ingredients. These MFPs have a great potential to be used as functional feed ingredients in animal feed formulation.

Modern microbial solid state fermentation technology for future biorefineries for the production of added-value products

The promise of industrial biotechnology has been around since Chaim Weizmann developed acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation at the University of Manchester in 1917 and the prospects nowadays look brighter than ever. Today’s biorefinery technologies would be almost unthinkable without biotechnology. This is a growing trend and biorefineries have also increased in importance in agriculture and the food industry. Novel biorefinery processes using solid state fermentation (SSF) technology have been developed as alternative to conventional processing routes, leading to the production of added-value products from agriculture and food industry raw materials. SSF involves the growth of microorganisms on moist solid substrate in the absence of free-flowing water. Future biorefineries based on SSF aim to exploit the vast complexity of the technology to modify biomass produced by agriculture and the food industry for valuable by-products through microbial bioconversion. In this review, a summary has been made of the attempts at using modern microbial SSF technology for future biorefineries for the production of many added-value products ranging from feedstock for the fermentation process and biodegradable plastics to fuels and chemicals.

Water Retention Value: A Study Model-based by Asperglillus awamori and Aspergillus oryzae Embrace Three Models of Solid Substrate

The goal of this study was to evaluate the water retention value (WRV) of a test solid substrate and a fungal cell in solid state fermentation (SSF). WRV is the ratio of the weight of water retained after centrifugation under specific conditions by a wet sample to the oven dry weight of the same sample. SSF refers to the microbial fermentation, which takes place in the absence or near absence of free water, thus being close to the natural environment. Many factors are involved in a successful SSF process. In addition to biological parameters, the SSF process is also dependent on physical factors such as WRV. A centrifugal technique has been modified and applied to the evaluation of WRV. Wheat bran, soybean hulls and rapeseed meal were used as model substrate. Aspergillus awamori and Aspergillus oryzae were used as model microorganism. Results revealed that the ability of wheat bran to retain water in the solid substrate is 56% higher than that of soybean hulls and rapeseed meal. In the term of fungal cell, the ability of A. oryzae to retain water in the cells was higher (73% higher) than that of A. awamori. In addition, through oven method moisture content loss from A. awamori is 46% higher than that from A. oryzae during drying process. Nevertheless, it can be seen that A. oryzae is able to retain water content about 5 times higher than A. awamori. Through this results, we found that WRV varies depending on solid substrates and microorganisms. This initial information can be beneficial in the SSF process to be carried out.