Production of enzymes from pineapple crown and coffee husk by solid state fermentation

Agricultural waste had long become an environmental issue since there is no appropriate method for handling these residues. However, most of these wastes are used as animal feed or burned as an alternative for elimination in which it can cause air pollution. The main objective of this study is to produce enzymes from agriculture waste from pineapple plantation (pineapple crown) with coffee husk as co-substrate using solid state fermentation (SSF). The physicochemical properties (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur) of pineapple crown were characterized. During the SSF, the influence of three parameters that were co-substrate ratio, extraction ratio and incubation period were studied for the production of cellulase and bromelain enzymes. Titrimetric Method Assay and Filter Paper Unit Assay were used for the determination of bromelain and cellulase activity, respectively. Pineapple crown contained 39.50% carbon, 5.51% hydrogen, 13.82% nitrogen and 0.46% sulphur. These results proved that the effectiveness of pineapple crown as a substrate in solid state fermentation for production of the enzymes as it contains high C:N ratio (2.86). The optimum result for bromelain and cellulase activity were achieved when using co-substrate ratio 2:1 (w/w) with the presence of sludge, extraction ratio 1:5 (w/v) and incubation period of 4 days which are 1589 ± 9.89GDU/g and 5.5851 ± 0.64 IU/mL respectively. Therefore, the production of hydrolytic enzymes (cellulase and bromelain) from pineapple crown can be accomplished by SSF, thus decreasing the operating cost.