Abstract

MANJARRES, Katherine; PINEROS, Yineth  and  RODRIGUEZ-SANDOVAL, Eduardo. Evaluation of enzymatic complex produced by the co-culture of Aspergillus sp. and Trichoderma sp. in solid phase on oil palm waste. Bioagro [online]. 2011, vol.23, n.1, pp.19-26. ISSN 1316-3361.

Oil palm processing industry in Colombia generates a huge quantity of byproducts rich in lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses. This work studied cellulolytic enzyme activity through the individual culture or coculture of Aspergillus sp. and Trichoderma sp. in a solid phase using byproducts of oil palm as a substrate. These agricultural wastes were biologically pretreated with Pleurotus ostreatus during 20 days in order to eliminate the lignin and thus improve the cellulase production. The total activity of cellulase (Fpase), endoglucanase (CMCases) y ß-glucosidase (Celobiase) were evaluated during 16 days at 30 °C. The highest values were obtained using Aspergillus sp as individual culture, with 0.149 UI·mL^-1 of Fpase, 0.329 UI·mL^-1 of CMCase and 0.148 UI/mL of celobiase. However, the coculture  systems with  Aspergillus sp. during the first 9 days and after adding Trichoderma sp. resulted in a suitable system because prevented the decrease of the enzymatic activity after reaching its maximum level of 0.112 UI/mL of Fpase, 0.311 UI/mL of CMCase and 0.140 UI/ml of  celobiase.

Keywords : Cellulose; cellulase; endoglucanase; ß-glucosidase.