Amino acids composition of mycelial protein of penicillium expansum grown in acid treated rice husk mineral medium

The aim of the present study was to analyze the amino acids composition of single cell protein of Penicillium expansum . Mycelial biomass was produced when fungus was grown in 0.6N H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ pretreated rice husk mineral medium incorporated with 0.5% and 1% of nitrogen sources like potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, peptone, yeast extract, urea, corn steep liquor and ammonium sulphate. It was observed that the growth rate of Penicillium expansum increased with 0.5% sodium nitrate produces 1.390 +- 0.084g/l of mycelial biomass. In the subsequent experiment, fermentation medium was supplemented with 0.5% and 1.0% different sugars (sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, galactose, lactose, carboxymethyl-cellulose, starch, mannose, and molasses) at pH 6.0 for 240 hours at 35 +- 2 deg. C in a fermenter. The highest amount of mycelial biomass (5.107 +- 0.169g/l) was obtained with 1% sucrose and followed by 4.953 +- 0.17g/l, 4.808 +- 0.14g/l and 4.844 +- 0.10g/l mycelial biomass using glucose, maltose and galactose, respectively. The mycelial biomass of Penicillium expansum contains essential and non essential amino acids like phospho-serine, serine, valine, aspartic acid, threonine, glutamic acid, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, alo-lysine, halo-lysine, lysine and arginine. The glutamic acid (3355.0 +- 19.798 mu mol/g mycelia) and proline (785.0 +- 9.899 mu mol/g mycelia) were found in higher concentration than other amino acids produced by Penicillium expansum grown on rice husk supplemented with lactose. (author)