Monday, August 13, 2012
Columbia Hall, Terrace Level (Washington Hilton)
Starch is a polysaccharide molecule consisting of a large number of glucose monomer units, joined together by glycosidic linkage. Starch acts as a chief carbon and energy source in most of the living organisms but only in its monomer form i.e. glucose. The enzyme responsible for the breakdown of the glycosidic linkage of this polysaccharide molecule is α-amylase. Besides the use in starch hydrolysis, α-amylase enzymes are also used in a number of other industrial applications, such as laundry and as anti-staling agents in baking industry. The large scale production of this enzyme has boomed in the last few decades and it is continuously increasing day by day as the demand increases. Every time the researchers look for a new substrate source which is not only cheap but also a comparatively good enzyme producer then the present sources.
Keeping this motive in mind, we have tried to look for that source whose market value is almost negligible and enzyme production capacity is appreciable (which may be further improved with certain additives) - wheat bran, jowar bran , maize bran ,pearl millet (Bajra) bran , sugarcane waste powder , potato peel powder and potato dextrose broth (PDB). This work is actually a comparative study of α-amylase production in the solid state and submerged state media, with emphasis on utilizing some agricultural waste having no commercial values. The micro-organism employed for the work is Aspergillus oryzae. 3,5-Dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method is used to check for the enzyme production.