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Solid Substrate Fermentation of Monascus purpureus : Growth, Carbon Balance, and Consistency Analysis
Author(s) -
Rosenblitt Ariel,
Agosin Eduardo,
Delgado Javier,
PérezCorrea Ricardo
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1002/btpr.5420160201
Subject(s) - monascus purpureus , monascus , carbon fibers , biomass (ecology) , fermentation , substrate (aquarium) , chemistry , acetic acid , food science , mathematics , biology , agronomy , biochemistry , ecology , algorithm , composite number
Solid Substrate fermentation (SSF) of Monascus purpureus on rice is a promising new technology for obtaining natural pigments. However, before attempts can be made at maximizing pigment yield, all significant macroscopic compounds should be assayed. Here, Monascus purpureus has been grown on rice in batch mode, and the evolution of the main components, biomass, residual rice, O 2 , CO 2 , ethanol, acetic acid, and pigments, have been followed. This set of data, never previously studied for Monascus SSF, allowed both the performance of a macroscopic elemental balance, which accounted for 83–94% of the initial substrate carbon, and a check of data consistency. Standard consistency analysis showed a significant underestimation of the nitrogen fraction of biomass, but it was unable to discriminate the errors in the carbon balance as a result of the simultaneous presence of two gross errors in the system. A simple stoichiometric model in tandem with consistency analysis explained unaccounted carbon as an underestimation of CO 2 and ethanol. Using the simplified method to estimate ethanol, the macroscopic balance accounted for 87–99% of the initial carbon.