PRODUCTION OF MICROBIAL CELLULOSE BY TEA FUNGUS "KOMBUCHA"

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Agric. Microbiology, Faculty of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Shoubra El-Kheima, Cairo, Egypt

2 Department of Agric. Biochemistry, Faculty of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Shoubra El-Kheima, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

In seeking economic production of microbial cellulose, the available and low cost commercial kombucha starter, contains mainly Acetobacter xylinum and Saccharomyces sp., were used under static condition. The best medium composition was black tea extract (1.0 g /100 ml H2O), sucrose (20%) and corn steep liquor, CSL (1%) at 26-28oC for 10 days. The cellulose yield (1.3 g /100 ml) and productive rate (1.3 X 10-3 g / day /ml) were higher than some reported values. Addition of folic acid or its building block p-aminobenzoic acid at additive concentrations 0.20% led to dou-bling the yield (2.37 and 2.43 g / 100 ml culture respectively) and the productive rate (2.37 X 10-3 and 2.43 X 10-3 g / day / ml respectively). Scan-ning electron micrograph showed the structure of the produced microbial cellulose fibrils without any microbial flora after treatment with 1% NaOH.

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