Utilization of Agricultural By-Products for Alpha-Amylase Production under Solid State Fermentation by Bacillus subtilis

The production of alpha-amylase by Bacillus subtilis was investigated under different cultivation conditions on two different solid substrates as the support, i.e. oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibers and rice straw using solid state fermentation (SSF) process. Both solid substrates were first pre-treated using NaOH to remove lignin and silica and to break down the hemicellulose structures. The influences of incubation time, incubation temperature and the additional carbon and nitrogen sources on the production of alpha-amylase by B. subtilis were investigated. After 48 h of incubation, the highest enzyme activities were obtained at 39.9 U/g and 23.5 U/g for rice straw and OPEFB fibers, respectively. The optimum temperature for alpha-amylase production was observed at 45 degrees C for the OPEFB fibers and 55 degrees C for the rice straw. Among the defined carbohydrates, the addition of glucose (0.02 g/g dry substrate) has significantly improved the production of alpha-amylase. Similar effect was observed when yeast extract (0.01 g/g dry substrate) was supplemented as the additional nitrogen source. Rice straw appeared to be the best solid substrate in producing alpha-amylase (276 U/g) in SSF under these optimum cultivation conditions.