33 RESEARCH PAPER Production of Pectinase by Aspergillus niger Cultured in Solid State Media Nazneen Akhter 1, M. Alam Morshed 1,3* , Azim Uddin 3 , Feroza Begum 2 , Tipu Sultan 1 , Abul Kalam Azad 1 1 Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science and Technology, Islamic University, Kushtia-7003, Bangladesh. 2 Bangladesh Industrial Microbiology Laboratory, IFST, BCSIR, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 3 Department of Pharmacy, North South University, Bashundhara, Dhaka-1229, Bangladesh. *Corresponding author: morshedbt@gmail.com Received: 10 January 2011, Revised: 20 January 2011, Accepted: 21 January 2011 Abstract Solid state fermentation was carried out with 7 fungal strains, obtained from different sources. Among 7 isolates Aspergillus niger, IM-6 was found as effective pectinase producer. Maximum enzymatic activity (142.44U/gm) was observed after 7 days incubation at 40˚C temperature in 750 ml conical flask. In this study 1.69% (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 was used as nitrogen source, although peptone as a nitrogen source showed better result but use of peptone was not cost effective. As a substrate, wheat bran and potato starch showed good result (85.54U/gm) in solid state culture. Addition of 9.68% pectin was found to increase the enzyme production as 116.57U/gm. Pectinase production was optimum in 60% moisture (98.34U/gm). Aeration showed positive effects on pectinase production (136.86U/gm) at 750 ml flask than 1000 ml flask. Thus the wild strain Aspergillus niger IM-6 has outstanding pectinase producing International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) ISSN: 2220-6655 (Print) Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 33-42, 2011 http://www.innspub.net