Improvement of Biological Penicillin Production from Penicillium Chrysogenum Using Molasses as Carbone Source

Penicillin as a secondary metabolite is produced by various fungus especially Penicillium chrysogenum.. In order to study the affecting parameters on the growth and penicillin biosynthesis, a strain of P. chrysogenum; PTCC-5031 was used in this work. Since P. chrysogenum can consume different sources of carbon, in order to decrease the production expenses, molasses; as a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane or sugar beets was used with several ratios with synthetic carbon sources such as lactose and glucose in preparation of pre-culture and main cultivation media. The effect of molasses concentration in fermentation broth on the cell growth and penicillin production yield was studied. Obtained results showed that using 1:1 (w/w) ratio of molasses and lactose can incredibly decrease the fermentation time, increase the cell growth as well as penicillin production yield.