Available online at www.pelagiaresearchlibrary.com Pelagia Research Library European Journal of Experimental Biology, 2012, 2 (4):1044-1052 ISSN: 2248 –9215 CODEN (USA): EJEBAU 1044 Pelagia Research Library Production of α-amylase using banana waste by Bacillus subtilis under solid state fermentation Chandrashekhar Unakal 1* , Radha I. Kallur 2 and Basappa B. Kaliwal 2 1 Department of Microbiology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, University of Gondar, ETHIOPIA 2 Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Karnataka University Dharwad, INDIA _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Banana waste was used as a substrate for the production of amylase by Bacillus subtilis using solid state fermentation. The various process parameters were optimized, the incubation period, substrate concentration, pH and incubation temperature showed 24hrs, 50g, 7 pH and 35°C respectively. Peptone (0.2%) as a nitrogen sources showed maximum yield and the maximum enzyme activity showed in presence of in organic nutrients magnesium sulphate (MgSo 4 .7H 2 O), calcium chloride (CaCl 2 .2H 2 O) and di-hydrogen potassium phosphate (KH2PO4) were 0.02%, 0.04% and 0.4% respectively. Key words: Banana waste, Bacillus subtilis, SSF and α-amylase. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Amylolytic enzymes from numerous sources degrade starch, the primary storage polysaccharide in plants. Amylase is one of the most important enzymes and of great significance in present day biotechnology and having approximately 25% of the enzyme market [1]. New amylases could be potentially useful in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries of enzymes with suitable properties could be identified [2]. With the advent of new frontiers in biotechnology, the spectrum of amylase applications has expanded into many other fields such as clinical, medicinal and analytical chemistry [3] and other applications. The amylases can be derived from several sources, such as plants, animals and micro-organisms. Because of their short growth period, the enzymes from microbial sources generally meet industrial demands [4,5]. The first enzyme produced industrially was an amylase from a fungal source in 1994, which was used for the treatment of digestive disorders [6]. At present, Bacillus, Aspergillus, Rhizopus and rhizobial isolates specified are considered to be the most important sources of industrial amylases [3, 7]. Nevertheless, various other sources of microbial amylases are been investigated in the world. Growth conditions and nutrients promote high yields of microbial amylases. However, carbon sources such as dextrin, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose and starch are very expensive for commercial production of these enzymes [7, 8]. These expensive products can be replaced in the medium with economically available agricultural by-products [9] or industrial amylaceous substances as carbon substrates. In this sense, brans, straws and flours of different grains and tubers, such as barley, corn, cassava, potato, rice, sorghum and wheat, have been used in the fermentation medium to increase the productivity of amylases from bacteria and fungi [10, 11, 12]. Banana (Musa sapientum) is grown extensively in tropical and subtropical countries, and 14.37% of the world’s production is shared by India. From the banana produce, in addition to the fruit wastes, the stem, leaves and pseudo stem are also accumulated as wastes in the environment, posing serious environmental problems. Several attempts have been