Abstract

ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LOVASTATIN PRODUCING FOOD GRADE FUNGI FROM ORIENTAL FOODS

Upendra R. S*, Pratima Khandelwal, Z. R. Amiri, Aparna. S4, Archana. C
and Ashwathi.M

Abstract

Traditional oriental fermented foods namely soy sauce, miso, vinegar,red rice vinegar, pickled tofu and Ang-kak were becoming increasinglypopular in different parts of India and shall be used for isolation ofhypolipidemic agent, lovastatin producing representative fungi.Existing food grade (GRAS) fungi, Monascus sp were known toproduce lovastatin through SSF. Further exploration of food gradefungi from indigenous and traditional oriental fermented food productsshall augment such sources and lead to better and safe food productdevelopment. Such a strategy shall give benefits to the elderly and theconcept of preventive health care shall take envisaged shape. With thisobjective the present investigation focus on isolation andmicrobiological characterization of the lovastatin producing GRASfilamentous fungi from various traditional oriental fermented food samples obtained fromIndia and China. Initially food grade fungal cultures were isolated by serial dilutiontechnique and morphological characteristic of the isolated fungal cultures was studied onPotato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. Microscopic confirmation of isolated fungal cultureswere performed using light microscopy. Further, microbiologically characterized fungalcultures were tested on a novel substrate combination of rice and barley using Solid statefermentation (SSF) process for the production of lovastatin. At the end of the SSF process the presence of lovastatin in the prepared samples from the end product was analysed qualitatively using Thin Layer Chromatography and ATR-FTIR. The yield of lovastatin was quantified using UV spectroscopic analysis at 238 nm using pure drug lovastatin as a standard (Biocon, India). Present study isolated one Monascus purpureus and three Monascus ruber fungal cultures and concluded that all the four characterized fungal cultures were found to be positive for lovastatin production.

Keywords: Monascus Species, Traditional oriental fermented foods, Lovastatin, Solid state fermentation and ATR-FTIR.