Effect of phosphate on glucosamine production by ethanolic fungus Mucor indicus

In this study, the effect of phosphorous compound concentration on the production of glucosamine by Mucor indicus was investigated. Changes in the yield of ethanol, the major metabolite of the fungus, were also followed besides. The alkali insoluble material of the biomass of the fungus mainly contained phosphates and polymers of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine, i.e., chitin and chitosan. Yields of glucosamine (78-113 g/kg dry fungal biomass) and ethanol (200-370 g/kg glucose) were significantly affected by the phosphorous concentration. The results showed that lower concentrations of phosphorous favored the production of glucosamine while higher ethanol as well as biomass yields was obtained at higher concentrations. The best concentration was 0.5 g/l where glucosamine yield was 0.37 g/l (11 % of the biomass). At this phosphate concentration, ethanol and biomass yields were 360 and 76 g/kg glucose, respectively. On average, proteins comprised 51.5 % of the biomass. Glycerol was the second important metabolite during the fermentation by the fungus which appeared at lower yields (20-34 g/kg glucose).