Value Addition of Agricultural Wastes for Improved Production of Industrially Important Enzymes by Employing Co-cultivation of Fungi

The aim of the present work was to evaluate the potential of cauliflower wastes for the cost-effective production of industrially important enzymes using mono and co-culture of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae and Candida intermedia under submerged fermentation. All fungal strains were able to use cauliflower wastes as sole carbon source for producing enzymes such as cellulases and xylanase. Organosolvent pretreatment of cauliflower wastes relatively removed more hemicelluloses and lignin in lignocellulosic waste residues than acid and alkali treatment. Co-cultivation produced higher amount of lignocellulose degrading enzyme system than the mono-culture used. Crude cellulases and xylanase of mono and co-culture produced on the organosolvent pretreated cauliflower wastes with the highest cellulose content were further tested for the release of reducing sugar during the saccharification process of same pretreated waste biomasses. According to our results, fungal filtrate harvested from submerged fermentation was more efficient for lignocellulolytic biomass hydrolysis than the commercial enzymes.