Factors influencing fungal degradation of total soluble carbohydrates in sugarcane-pressmud under solid-state fermentation

Studies on the comparative ability of 16 fungi isolated from sugarcane-pressmud and stillage indicated the potential of Aspergillus flavus SX-14 to degrade 58·5 and 87·7% of total soluble carbohydrates in moist sugarcane-pressmud medium in solid state fermentation at 2 and 14 days, respectively. An increase in the initial moisture content of the medium to 70% and adjustment of the initial pH to 7·2 improved the degradation at 14 days to 91·1 and 92·1%, respectively. Enrichment of the medium with 1·8% ammonium sulphate reduced the fermentation time to 6 days to attain 93·2% degradation. An inoculum ratio of 6% further improved the degradation to 97·0% at 6 days. Kinetic studies ruled out the possibility of invertase deficiency being responsible for the non-utilization of about 3% sugars in the standardized system.