Abstract

The present study focuses on the production of an extracellular alkaline protease enzyme from soil selected strains of various active solid substrates by Bacillus sp., screened from soil. Some fermentation conditions were studied aiming to improve enzyme production-substrate; pH 9.0 and incubation temperature of 37° C given the best results. For the enzyme activity stability, the following best conditions were found: substrate pH of 13.0 and temperature of 55° C. Enzyme production by solid-state fermentation were studied using different agricultural solid wastes like rice bran, wheat bran, coconut oil cake, groundnut oil cake and gingili oil cake. The maximum enzyme activity was achieved from groundnut oil cake with soybean meal as substrate.

Key words: Bacillus sp., Solid state fermentation, alkaline protease.