Development of Mycorrhizae Like spp. and Trichoderma spp. cocktail for degradation of oil palm empty fruit bunch

Abstract

The accumulation of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) in large quantity contributes to environmental pollution. The usual means of disposing this waste such as burning in incinerators leads to secondary pollution. The present study aims to find an efficient and practical approach to revalorize OPEFB as renewable and cost effective substrate for production of lignocellulolytic enzymes. A total of nine Mycorrhizae like fungi and six Trichoderma isolates stock were collected from Biorefinery Technology Research Laboratory. The isolates were studied for biocompatibility on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Mandel medium. The solid state fermentation was conducted using mono and mixed-culture of Mycorrhizae CS2 like fungi and Trichoderma A4 sp. and untreated OPEFB along with four different media. The activity of enzymes and reducing sugar during fermentation process was analyzed. The biocompatibility test showed that Mycorrhizae spp. and Trichoderma spp. could grow together on both PDA and Mendel medium. The highest enzymes activities were produced at 76% final moisture content, 500µm substrate, initial pH 7.0, inoculum size 1×107, incubation at 30? and consortium growth on OPEFB supplemented with Mandel medium. The highest CMCase and xylanase activities of mixed culture was 38.67 U/g and 111.88 U/g and single culture was CS2 37.66 U/g and 100.59 U/g both in Mandel medium. Interestingly, highest lignin peroxidase activity (0.000323 U/g and 0.000215U/g) were recorded from mono cultures of CS2 on medium B and C respectively. The highest reducing sugar production of 0.0383 U/g and 0.0785 U/g were recorded from single CS2 and mixed cultures both from mandel medium. The finding of the study suggest that OPEFB is a cheap renewable substrate that can be used for lignocellulolytic enzyme production and also indicates that Mycorhizae and Trichoderma consortium could be a good alternative for enzymes production.