Production of pectinases towards the extraction of natural pectin from orange peels using fungal sources

Abstract

Pectin is a polysaccharide, which is present in middle lamella of cell wall of higher plants. Almost all fruits have a part of pectin in their cell walls. Pectinases are used in the degradation of the plant material and promptly extract juices from different fruits. For this purpose, identified fungi were screened qualitatively and quantitatively for the production of pectinase at 30 ºC for 92 hours of incubation time. In liquid state fermentation, identified strains of Trichoderma asperellum, Aspergillus niger and Thermomyces were treated in which Trichoderma asperellum produced maximum pectinase activities (9.2 U/ml) after 24 hours of incubation by using orange peels as a sole carbon source. Furthermore, pectinases produced from fungal strains were used to produce natural pectin from fruit waste like orange peels. During fermentation process, pectinase produced from fungal strains were inoculated to dried orange peels for 24 hours of incubation time at 30 ºC. The filtered extract was treated with 3 volumes of 80% ethanol for washing to extract pectin. Trichoderma asperellum gave maximum pectin yield [(11.7%)], Aspergillus niger and Thermomyces gave minimum pectin yield [(9.7%, 7.5%)] from orange peels respectively and the amount of pectin yield extracted from orange peels control was [(3.5%)]. Pectinases and pectin has found huge industrial applications in soft drinks, dairy products, pharmaceuticals and food industries, therefore, the present work has focused on the cost effective production of pectinase enzyme and extraction of natural pectin by using potential indigenous fungal strains.