Factors Influencing Fungal Degradation of Total Soluble Carbohydrates in Sugarcane-Pressmud under Solid- State Fermentation

Studies on the comparative abiliry of Idfungi isolatedfrom sugarcane-pressmud
and stillage indicated the potential of Aspergillus flavus SX- I4 to degrade 585
and 877% of total soluble carbohydrates in moist sugarcane-pressmud medium in
solid state fermentation at 2 and 14 days, respectively. An increase in the initial
moisture content of the medium to 70% and adjustment of the initial pH to 72
improved the degradation at 14 days to 91.1 and 921% respectively. Enrichment
of the medium with 1.8% ammonium sulphate reduced the fermentation time to 6
days to attain 932% degradation. An inoculum ratio of 6% further improved the
degradation to 970% at 6 days. Kinetic studies ruled out the possibility of invertase
deficiency being responsible for the non-utilization of about 3% sugars in the
standardized system.