Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Monascus pigment is traditionally produced by Monascus fermentation employing rice powder or glucose as the culture substrate. By submerged fermentation, Monascus pigment yield would be more stable and the accompanied toxic byproduct-citrinin could be controlled and removed more easily. To reduce the cost of Monascus submerged fermentation, the feasibility of corncob hydrolysate as an alternative substrate was investigated. Results showed that, compared to the traditional glucose medium, corncob hydrolysate medium had an equal pigment yield without stimulating accumulations of the toxic citrinin. Further more, the corncob hydrolysate medium and cultivation were optimized to enhance pigment productions but depress synthesis of the toxic citrinin. When Monascus was cultured under dark condition and caprylic acid was added into the medium, the pigment wasincreased to 25.81±0.83 UA500/mL, higher than 24.04±0.97 UA500/mL of the glucose medium and previously reported yields in Monascus submerged fermentation based on the same yield unit, and the toxic citrinin was decreased to 26.2±1.9μg/L, significantly lower than 44.3±2.2 μg/L of the glucose control and that reported in publications. In this study, corncob hydrolysate was proved to be safe and highly efficient alternative substrate of submerged fermentation for Monascus pigment productions, which showed significant advantages than the traditional glucose substrate.

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