BARLEY BRAN, A NOVEL AGRICULTURAL WASTE FOR THE IMPROVED PRODUCTION OF AN EXTRACELLULAR LACCASE FROM A SOIL-INHABITED Penicillium spp.

Abstract

Laccases are useful for bioleaching and removal of phenolics and xenobiotics. They play an important role in food, paper, pulp and textile industry. Laccases are very interesting biocatalysts for several industrial applications. The present research work was concerned with the production of an extracellular laccase from Penicillium spp. isolate IIB-11 on barley bran using solid state fermentation (SSF). The enzyme has various industrial applications such as in pulp and paper industry, textile industry, organic synthesis, bioremediation, food industry, pharmaceuticals and nano-biotechnology. Isolation of Penicillium was carried out from soil samples. The highest production (2.94 Ug^-1) was observed by Penicillium spp. isolate IIB-11. Different parameters were undertaken for optimization conditions.  The highest enzyme activity (36.29 Ug^-1) from Penicillium spp. IIB-11 was observed using 50 g barley bran, 75 ml of HCl (0.1 N), pH 1.5, 30°C temperature, 44 h time of incubation and 4 % inoculum size. The enzyme activity was checked with copper sulphate and riboflavin. Maximum enzyme activity (41.36 Ug^-1) was obtained when 0.03 % copper sulphate was used. The enzyme activity was also observed (43.04 Ug^-1) with riboflavin. Barley bran showed significant production of laccase (p<0.05) with optimal conditions of the temperature, pH, moisture content, HCl (0.1 N) as a moistening agent and age of fungus. However, there is a need of further work on biochemical characterization and enzyme stability to scale up studies.