Volume 18, Issue 56 (9-2006)
Abstract
From 28 Aspergillus terreus, three produced lovastatin with equivalent or better yield than strain ATCC 20542 originally described for lovastatin production. Medium optimization experiments with the best isolate (Gil- 4) indicated that lactose, soya meal and KNO3 were the best sources carbon, organic nitrogen and inorganic nitrogen sources, respectively. In shake-flasks with optimized medium containing 4 % (w/v) lactose, 400 g lovastatin/ml was produced, with a yield of 10 mg/g lactose. In solid substrate fermentation on extracted sweet sorghum pulp supplemented with cheese whey 1500 g lovastatin/g dry weight was produced with a yield of 37.5 mg/g lactose.
