Available online at www.jpsscientificpublications.com
Volume – 1; Issue - 2; Year – 2017; Page: 59 – 71
ISSN: 2456-7353
DOI: 10.22192/ijias.2017.1.2.4
I International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS) Journal of In
©2017 Published by JPS Scientific Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
UTILIZATION OF AGROINDUSTRIAL WASTES FOR THE CULTIVATION OF
INDUSTRIALLY IMPORTANT FUNGI – A REVIEW
P. Saranraj*1 and S. Anbu
2,
1Department of Microbiology, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Tirupattur – 635 601, Tamil Nadu,
India. 2Department of Biochemistry, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Tirupattur – 635 601, Tamil Nadu,
India.
Abstract
Fungi are an important component of soil microbiota typically having higher biomass than bacteria
depending on soil depth and nutrient conditions. Generally, growth media for fungi contain carbon and
nitrogen sources, and most fungi require several specific elements for growth and reproduction. Cultural
medium is defined as any material in which microorganism find nourishment for growth and development.
Fungi, like any other living organism, require nutrients for their life processes. This is obvious from the fact
that they feed on varieties of food substances. Investigation into the composition of culture media has
established that the important ingredients such as nitrogen, carbon, vitamins and growth factors, mainly essential mineral salts are required for fungal growth. The feasibility of developing alternative media for
cultivation of fungi apart from the conventional ones like Sabouraud’s Dextrose Agar and Potato Dextrose
Agar has been studied by different researchers. The need to develop alternative media has become
imperative as the conventional media are either not readily available or expensive in most developing
countries. The present review was focused on the utilization of fruit peels for the growth of industrially
important fungi. In this present review, we discussed about the Generation and composition of
Agroindustrial wastes, Fruit peels, Fruit peel wastes in fungal growth and Utilization of fruit peel wastes for
the cultivation of industrially important fungi.
Key words: Fungi, Industrial importance, Agroindustrial wastes and Fruit peels.
1. Introduction Ever increasing population and
industrialization has resulted in sudden increase in
pollution. Because of the detrimental effects of
pollution on humans, animals and plants, the ever
*Corresponding author: Dr. P. Saranraj E.mail: [email protected] Received: 17.05.2017; Revised: 28.05.2017; Accepted: 15.06.2017.
increasing pollution is causing concern all over the
world (Gao et al., 2010). One of the major
environmental concerns in urban areas today is the
issue of Solid Waste Management. In India, the
collection, transportation and disposal of solid
waste is normally done in an unscientific and
chaotic manner (Carlsson et al., 2012).
Uncontrolled dumping of wastes on outskirts of
towns and cities has created overflowing landfills,
which are not only impossible to reclaim because
of the haphazard manner of dumping, but also
have serious environmental implications in terms
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 60
©2017 Published by JPS Scientific Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
of ground water pollution and contribution to
global warming (Manigat et al., 2010).
Environmental issues and concerns aimed
at reducing the ambient pollution have boosted the
search for clean technologies to be used in the
production of commodities of importance to
chemical, energy and food industries. This
practice makes use of alternative materials,
requires less energy and diminishes pollutants in
industrial effluents, as well as being more
economically advantageous due to its reduced
costs. Considering this scenario, the use of
residues from agroindustrial, forestry and urban
sources in bioprocesses has aroused the interest of
the scientific community lately. The utilization of
such materials as substrates for microbial
cultivation intended to produce cellular proteins,
organic acids, mushrooms, biologically important
secondary metabolites, enzymes, prebiotic
oligosaccharides and as sources of fermentable
sugars in the second generation ethanol production
has been reported (Sanchez, 2009).
Agricultural and agro-industrial activities
generate a large amount of lignocellulosic by-
products such as bagasse, straw, stem, stalk, cobs,
fruit peel and husk, among others. These wastes
are mainly composed of cellulose (35 % – 50 %),
hemicellulose (25 % – 30 %), and lignin (25 % –
30 %) (Behera et al., 2016). Typically, in
lignocellulosic materials, the cellulose main
constituent is glucose; hemicellulose is a
heterogeneous polymer that is mainly comprised
of five different sugars (L-arabinose, D-galactose,
D-glucose, D-mannose, and D-xylose) and some
organic acids; whereas lignin is formed by a
complex three-dimensional structure of
phenylpropane units (Mussatto et al., 2012).
Nowadays the rise of the middle class and
fast economic growth in India, different varieties
of fruits produced in India and other countries are
increasingly consumed. Due to the high
consumption and industrial processing of the
edible parts of fruit, fruit wastes such as banana,
grapes, dragon fruit, orange, strawberry, lemon,
watermelon, citrus, Pomegranate, pineapple
residues, sugarcane bagasse and other fruit
residues are generated in large quantities in cities
sides area. Fruit waste has become one of the main
sources of municipal solid wastes, which have
been an increasingly tough environmental issue.
At present, the two main techniques to
dispose of solid wastes are landfill and
incineration. However, inappropriate management
of landfill will result in emissions of methane and
carbon dioxide, and incineration involves the
subsequent formation and releases of pollutants
and secondary wastes such as dioxins, furans, acid
gases as well as particulates, which pose serious
environmental and health risks. For these reasons,
there is an urgent need to seek resource and value-
added use for fruit wastes. In fact, inexpensive and
readily available use of agri-food industry waste is
highly cost-effective and minimizes environmental
impact (Deng et al., 2012; Zhou et al., 2016).
There is an urged need to seek the effect uses of
these solid materials in manure, feed for livestock
etc. Moreover fruit contains many
phytochemicals, which could be a therapeutic
agent for the modern dreadful disease. One of the
most beneficial approaches is these fruit peel can
be also used as reducing agent for the synthesis of
various nonmaterials
2. Agroindustrial wastes – Generation and
composition
Agro-industrial wastes are generated
during the industrial processing of agricultural or
animal products. Those derived from agricultural
activities include materials such as straw, stem,
stalk, leaves, husk, shell, peel, lint, seed/stones,
pulp or stubble from fruits, legumes or cereals (rice, wheat, corn, sorghum and barley), bagasses
generated from sugarcane or sweet sorghum
milling, spent coffee grounds, brewer’s spent
grains, and many others. These wastes are
generated in large amounts throughout the year,
and are the most abundant renewable resources on
earth. They are mainly composed by sugars,
fibres, proteins, and minerals, which are
compounds of industrial interest. Due to the large
availability and composition rich in compounds
that could be used in other processes, there is a
great interest on the reuse of these wastes, both
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 61
©2017 Published by JPS Scientific Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
from economical and environmental view points.
The economical aspect is based on the fact that
such wastes may be used as low-cost raw
materials for the production of other value-added
compounds, with the expectancy of reducing the
production costs. The environmental concern is
because most of the agro-industrial wastes contain
phenolic compounds and/or other compounds of
toxic potential; which may cause deterioration of
the environment when the waste is discharged to
the nature.
Large amount of the agro-industrial wastes
are mainly composed by cellulose, hemicellulose
and lignin, being called “lignocellulosic
materials”. In the lignocellulosic materials, these
three fractions are closely associated with each
other constituting the cellular complex of the
vegetal biomass, and forming a complex structure
that act as a protective barrier to cell destruction
by bacteria and fungi. Basically, cellulose forms a
skeleton which is surrounded by hemicellulose
and lignin.
The cellulose structure is composed only
by glucose units, i.e., it is a homopolymer where
units of cellobiose are sequentially repeated
(Klemm et al., 1998). The long-chain of cellulose
polymers, which may have until 10,000 glucose
units, are linked together by hydrogen and van der
Walls bonds, which cause the cellulose to be
packed into microfibrils (Ha et al., 1998). By
forming these hydrogen bounds, the chains tend to
arrange in parallel and form a crystalline structure.
Cellulose microfibrils have both highly crystalline
regions (around 2/3 of the total cellulose) and less-
ordered amorphous regions. More ordered or
crystalline cellulose is less soluble and less
degradable, being strongly resistant to chemicals
(Taherzadeh and Karimi, 2008).
On the contrary of the cellulose,
hemicellulose is a heterogeneous polymer usually
composed by five different sugars (L-arabinose,
D-galactose, D-glucose, D-mannose, and Dxylose)
and some organic acids (acetic and glucuronic
acids, among others). The structure of the
hemicellulose is linear and branched. The
backbone of the hemicellulose chain can be
formed by repeated units of the same sugar
(homopolymer) or by a mixture of different sugars
(heteropolymer). According to the main sugar in
the backbone, hemicellulose has different
classifications e.g., xylans, glucans, mannans,
arabinans, xyloglucans, arabinoxylans,
glucuronoxylans, glucomannans, galactomannans,
galactoglu comannans and glucans. Besides the
differences in the chemical composition,
hemicellulose also differs from cellulose structure
in other aspects, including: 1) the size of the chain,
which is much smaller (it contains approximately
50 - 300 sugar units); 2) the presence of branching
in the main chain molecules, and 3) to be
amorphous, being less resistant to chemicals
(Fengel and Wegener, 1989).
The lignin structure is not formed by sugar
units, but by phenylpropane units linked in a large
and very complex three-dimensional structure.
Three phenyl propionic alcohols are usually found
as monomers of lignin, which include the alcohols
p-coumaryl, coniferyl, and sinapyl. Lignin is
closely bound to cellulose and hemicellulose and
its function is to provide rigidity and cohesion to
the material cell wall, to confer water
impermeability to xylem vessels, and to form a
physico–chemical barrier against microbial attack
(Fengel and Wegener, 1989).
The percentage of cellulose, hemicellulose
and lignin is different to each waste since it varies
from one plant species to another, and also
according to the process that the agricultural
material was submitted. In addition, the ratios
between various constituents in a single plant may
also vary with age, stage of growth, and other
conditions. Usually, cellulose is the dominant
fraction in the plant cell wall (35–50%), followed
by hemicellulose (20 – 35 %) and lignin (10 – 25
%).
The presence of sugars, proteins, minerals
and water make the agro-industrial wastes a
suitable environment for the development of
microorganisms, mainly fungal strains, which are
able to quickly grow in these wastes. If the
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 62
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cultivation conditions are controlled, different
products of industrial interest may be produced,
avoiding the loss of potential energy sources.
There is an increasing energy demands
worldwide towards the utilization of renewable
resources, from agricultural and forest residues.
The major components of the residues are
cellulose, lignin and pectin. These materials have
paid more attention as an alternative feed stock
and energy source, since they are abundantly
available. Several microorganisms are capable of
using these substances as carbon and energy
sources by producing a vast array of enzymes in
different environmental conditions. Solid wastes
are perceived as undesirable matter that is
generated from human and animal activities. The
sources of solid waste include various sectors such
as residential, industrial, commercial, institutional
and agricultural premises.
Fruit residues may cause serious
environmental problems, since it accumulates in
agro-industrial yards without having any
significant and commercial value. Since disposal
of these wastes is expensive due to high costs of
transportation and a limited availability of landfills
they are unscrupulously disposed causing concern
as environmental problems. Furthermore, the
problem of disposing by-products is further
aggravated by legal restrictions. A high level of
BOD and COD in pineapple wastes add to further
difficulties in disposal. Researcher have focused
on co-digestion of fruit waste along with several
other fruit and vegetable wastes, manure, and
slaughter house wastes to reduce volatile solids by
50 to 65 % (Alvarez and Liden, 2007). Recently,
composting of pineapple wastes using earthworm
is reported (Mainoo et al., 2009). They have
reported that vermicomposting rapidly
decomposed about 99 % of fruit pulp wet mass
while peel had a loss in weight by almost 87 %.
The pH of the waste changed from acidic to a
neutral to alkaline during composting. However,
cost effectiveness is yet to be studied.
3. Fruit peels
Tropical and subtropical fruits processing
have considerably higher ratios of by-products
than the temperate fruits (Schieber et al., 2001).
Fruit by-products are not exceptions and they
consist basically of the residual pulp, peels, stem
and leaves. The increasing production of
pineapple processed items, results in massive
waste generations. This is mainly due to selection
and elimination of components unsuitable for
human consumption. Besides, rough handling of
fruits and exposure to adverse environmental
conditions during transportation and storage can
cause up to 55 % of product waste (Nunes et al.,
2009). These wastes are usually prone to microbial
spoilage thus limiting further exploitation. Further,
the drying, storage and shipment of these wastes is
cost effective and hence efficient, inexpensive and
eco-friendly utilization is becoming more and
more necessary.
Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the
outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable.
Botanically, the rind is usually the exocarp, which
includes the hard shell in fruits such as nuts.
Depending on the thickness and taste, peel is
sometimes eaten as part of the fruit, as seen with
apples. In some fruits such as banana or grape, the
peel is unpleasant or inedible; thus, it is removed
and discarded.
Oladiji et al. (2010) reported that most
fruit peels are discarded as waste after the inner
fleshy portions have been eaten. It is vital that
peels be removed from most fruits before eating;
and more importantly before using them in fruit
juice industries to prevent contamination.
Processing of fruits into juices reduces and
prevents wastage when fruits are in season.
Olukunle et al. (2007) opined that the fruit
juice is the next best thing to fresh fruit, and can
be packaged in aseptic, easily transportable
containers that are less susceptible to damage and
have a relatively long storage life. Juice extraction
and separation therefore open up new market
opportunities for tailoring fruit products to modern
consumer demands.
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 63
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At the time of producing fruit juice, a lot of
peels are produced. This could cause
environmental pollution and health problems if
left untreated. Peels can be removed manually,
mechanically and by the use of enzymes. A lot of
money, time, equipment and other resources are
used to remove the peels in the industry.
Enzymatic removal of peels could be cheaper and
more effective than manual and mechanical
methods. The use of enzyme in the manufacture of
various industrial products is wide spread
(Forgatty and Kelly, 2013). Development of
microbes that will synthesize these enzymes will
then be useful to man.
Mondal et al. (2012) used cucumber and
orange peels to evaluate the production of single
cell protein using Saccharomyces cerevisiae by
submerged fermentation. The authors state that the
bioconversion of fruit wastes into single cell
protein production has the potential to solve the
worldwide food protein deficiency by obtaining an
economical product for food and feed. Fruit
wastes rich in carbohydrate content and other
basic nutrients could support microbial growth.
Apple, turnip, papaya and banana peels were used
for alcohol fermentation and biomass production
by Kondari and Gupta (2012). The use of legume
seeds as alternative nutrient media for bacteria and
fungi has been reported (Tharmila et al., 2011;
Arulanantham et al., 2012; Ravimannan et al.,
2014).
4. Fruit peel wastes and fungal growth
The current fruit production of India is
around 32 million metric tones (MMT), accounts
for about 8 % of the world’s fruit production (Ravi
et al., 2007). India is the second largest producer
of Fruits after China. A large variety of fruits are
grown in India, of which mango, banana, orange,
guava, grape, pineapple and apple are the major
ones. Apart from these, fruits like papaya, sapota,
annona, phalsa, jackfruit, ber, pomegranate grown
in tropical and sub-tropical areas and peach, pear,
almond, walnut, apricot and strawberry in the
temperate areas. Although, fruit is grown
throughout the country, the major fruit growing
states are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Improved fruit and vegetable production
through efficient agricultural practices mobilizes
huge investments in fruit and vegetable processing
across the world. Banana, pineapple and papaya
are among the most widely acceptable fruits
planted on commercial level worldwide (Jamal et
al., 2012). Waste generation through these fruits is
on the increase due to sustained surge in world
population, improved economic growth in
developing nations and improved access to
nutrition education in high fruit producing
countries.
Wastes emanating from aforementioned
fruits include peels, pulp and seeds that constitute
about 40 % of the total mass of each fruit. The
majority of these waste materials were often
improperly disposed, hence constitute huge
environmental disorders (Essien et al., 2005; Lim
et al., 2010). Fruit waste dumping sites provide
necessary impetus for vectors, pathogenic bacteria
and yeast to thrive. A popular approach to
mitigating fruit waste poor handling is landfill and
incineration. These methods orchestrate an acute
air pollution problem by generating massive
leachates that contaminate ground water and
destroy aquatic lives (Taskin et al., 2010; Ali et
al., 2014).
Banana peel, pineapple peel, mango peel
and papaya peel (Pp) are major wastes generated
by fruit processing and agro-allied industries
(Rasu Jayabalan et al., 2010). These wastes
contain simple and complex sugars that are
metabolizable by microorganisms through
secretion of extracellular products (Saheed et al.,
2013). Fruit peels, which constitute a huge part of
the waste streams, provide anchorage for
filamentous fungi during bioconversion process
(Essien et al., 2005). Bioconversion of single fruit
waste is a common practice in valorization of fruit
peels. Pineapple waste, palm tree waste and
cassava waste have received attention for their
conversion to bio-ethanol, biogas and animal feed
(Alam et al., 2005, Dhanasekaran et al.,
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 64
©2017 Published by JPS Scientific Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
2011; Tijani et al., 2012). Designing treatment
schemes for specific agricultural residue limits
efficiency of waste collection and prolong
treatment period. Therefore, adoption of a method
that accommodates several fruit wastes is highly
robust, cheap and realistic in ameliorating
impediments associated with fruit waste disposal
(Aggelopoulos et al., 2014). The cultivation of
microbial cells (bacteria, yeast, and fungi) that
converts fruit wastes into value added products
such as biomass that can serve as animal feed
supplement is a unique approach.
The cost of all the microbiological media
is rising at a fast pace. To tackle this problem
some new microbiological media should be
designed which are efficient as well as cost
effective. This may be achieved by using
agricultural wastes as raw materials for microbial
media. Utilization of agricultural waste as a
substrate for fungal cultures for the production of
value added products has been reported which
includes cellulase production by some fungi
cultured on pineapple waste (Omojasola et al.,
2008). Carotenoids production is carried out on
agricultural waste using Blakeslea trispora
(Papaioannou and Liakopoulou Kyriakides, 2012)
and cellulase enzyme production on agricultural
waste by Aspergillus niger (Milala et al., 2005).
Sugarcane bagasse has been also reported as an
energy source for the production of lipase by
Aspergillus fumigatus (Naqvi et al., 2013).
A growth medium is a liquid or gel
designed to support the growth of
microorganisms. The commercially available
media are very costly. Routine practical require
large amount of media on regular basis for streak
plate, pour plate, spread plate experiments.
Availability of low cost media rich in nutrients,
giving comparative results is the need of the day.
The search for alternative, cheap media for use in
laboratory agents for routine microbiological
experiments is going on. Recent research has been
focused on finding alternatives to gelling agents of
media, agar in particular, and media, in general,
because of its exorbitant price (Tharmila et al.,
2011; Mateen et al., 2012; Ravimannan et al.,
2014).
Generally fungi are grown on Potato
dextrose agar (PDA), Sabouraud’s dextrose agar
(SDA), Rose Bengal Agar (RBA) or Corn Meal
agar (CMA) which are very expensive. Basically,
every fungus requires carbon, nitrogen and energy
source to grow and survive. Fruit peel wastes may
meet these requirements and work as a fungal
growth medium and can replace expensive media
in the market. This will add a benefit of minimal
contamination in the cultures as it does not meet
the needs of every microbe. Fruit peel wastes has
been exploited for the production of many high
value products but its potential as fungal growth
medium has never been reported. The aim of the
current study was to design a cost effective and
efficient medium for fungal cultures, that is,
Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer and
Penicillium chrysogenum using fruit peel wastes
as raw material.
5. Utilization of fruit peel wastes for the
cultivation of industrially important fungi
Wastes are materials that have not yet
been fully utilized. They are leftovers from
production and consumption. However, waste is
an expensive and sometimes unavoidable result of
human activity. It includes plant materials,
agricultural, household, industrial and municipal
wastes and residues (Okonkwo et al., 2006). The
disposal of agricultural wastes on land and into
water bodies is common and has been of serious
ecological hazards (Smith et al., 1987). In
developing countries, there is a growing interest
regarding the utilization of organic wastes
generated by the food processing sector and
through other human endeavors. This has led to a
new policy geared towards complete utilization of
raw materials so that little or no residue is left to
pose pollution problems (Ofuya and Nwajuiba,
1990).
India is the second major producer of fruits
and vegetables in the world. It contributes 10 % of
world fruit production. According to India
Agricultural Research Data Book 2016, the total
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 65
©2017 Published by JPS Scientific Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
waste generated from fruits and vegetables comes
to 50 million tons per annum. Fruit wastes rich in
carbohydrate content and other basic nutrients
could support microbial growth. Thus, fruit
processing wastes are useful substrates for
production of microbial proteins. The utilization
of fruit wastes in the production of SCP will help
in controlling pollution and also in solving waste
disposable problem to some extent in addition to
satisfy the world shortage of protein rich food.
It is anticipated that the discarded fruit as
well as the waste material can be utilized for
further industrial processes like fermentation,
bioactive component extraction, etc. There has
been numerous works on the utilization of waste
obtained from fruit and vegetable, dairy and meat
industries. In this regard, several efforts have been
made in order to utilize pineapple wastes obtained
from different sources. The wastes from pineapple
canneries have been used as the substrate for
bromelain, organic acids, ethanol, etc. since these
are potential source of sugars, vitamins and
growth factors (Larrauri et al., 1997; Nigam,
1999; Dacera et al., 2009). Several studies have
been carried out since decades on trying to explore
the possibility of using these wastes. In past, sugar
has been obtained from pineapple effluent by ion
exchange and further use it in syrup for canning
pineapple slices (Beohner and Mindler, 1949).
This paper would try to collect and gather
information regarding the utilization of pineapple
wastes.
Insufficient and improper methods of
disposal of solid wastes result in scenic blights,
serious hazards to public health (including
pollutions of air and water resources), accident
hazards and increase in rodents and insect vectors
of disease. Improperly handled wastes ultimately
become a nuisance to the public and interfere with
community life and development (Tchobanoglous
and Theisen, 1993). The agricultural based
industries generate significant quantities of
organic wastes including peels from cassava,
plantain, banana, oranges and straw from cereals.
Rather than allow these wastes to become solid
municipal wastes, it is necessary to convert them
to useful end products. It is now realized that these
waste could be utilized as cheap raw materials for
some industries or as cheap substrates for
microbiological processes (Nwabueze and Otowa,
2006). The food processing industry generates a
large amount of wastes annually including crop
residues like peels, husks, cobs, and shells (Gomez
Pazos et al., 2005). Such wastes are rich in sugar
and are easily assimilated by microorganisms; this
makes the wastes suitable materials for growth of
microorganisms. Inability to salvage and reuse
such materials economically results in the
unnecessary waste and depletion of natural
resources (Selke, 1990; Tchobanoglous and
Theisen, 1993).
Fungi constitute one of the largest groups
of plants with richest arrays of species. They are a
group of eukaryotic spore bearing,
achlorophyllous organisms that generally
reproduce asexually and sexually (Pelczar et al.,
1993). Some are agents of diseases in plants
(parasitic), while others are saprophytic.
Saprophytic fungi tend to be responsible for most
of the disintegration of organic materials, and
some of them render food material toxic (Pelczar
et al., 1993). The saprophytic fungi represent the
largest proportion of fungal species and they
perform a crucial role in the decomposition of
plant chemical compounds such as cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin, thus, contributing to the
maintenance of the global carbon cycle. Fungi
grow on diverse habitat in nature and are
cosmopolitan, requiring several specific elements
for growth and reproduction. In the laboratory,
fungi are isolated on specific culture media for
cultivation, preservation, macroscopic
examination and biochemical and physiological
characterization. A wide range of media are used
for isolation of different groups of fungi. These
media influence vegetative growth, and colony,
morphology, pigmentation and sporulation
depending on their composition, pH, temperature,
light, water availability and surrounding
atmospheric gas mixture (Northolt and Bullerman,
1982; Kuhn and Ghonnoum, 2003).
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 66
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Fungi are an important component of soil
microbiota typically having higher biomass than
bacteria depending on soil depth and nutrient
conditions (Ainsworth and Bisby, 1995).
Generally, growth media for fungi contain carbon
and nitrogen sources, and most fungi require
several specific elements for growth and
reproduction (Walker and White, 2005; Gao et al.,
2007). Cultural medium is defined as any material
in which microorganism find nourishment for
growth and development (Pelczar et al., 1993).
Fungi, like any other living organism, require
nutrients for their life processes. This is obvious
from the fact that they feed on varieties of food
substances (Hawker and Alan, 1979).
Investigation into the composition of culture
media has established that the important
ingredients such as nitrogen, carbon (a source of
energy), vitamins and growth factors, mainly
essential mineral salts are required for fungal
growth (Ruth et al., 2012). The feasibility of
developing alternative media for cultivation of
fungi apart from the conventional ones like
Sabouraud’s Dextrose Agar (SDA) and Potato
Dextrose Agar (PDA) has been studied by
different researchers (Weststeijn and Okafor,
1971; Adesemoye and Adedire, 2005; Tharmilla
and Thavaranjit, 2011). The need to develop
alternative media has become imperative as the
conventional media are either not readily available
or expensive in most developing countries
(Weststeijn and Okafor, 1971).
Apple, orange, banana and other fruits
locally available and thus serve as readily
available raw materials for the separation of
ethanol yeasts. Eghafona (1999) isolated various
strains of indigenous yeasts capable of producing
ethanol from local fermented pineapple juice.
Bansal and Singh (2003) and Hossain et al. (2014)
did comparative study on ethanol production from
molasses using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and
Zymomonas mobilis.
Silva et al. (2005) showed that the
agricultural waste materials supports the good
growth of fungi. Microbiological studies depend
on the ability to growth and maintain
microorganisms under laboratory conditions by
providing suitable culture media that offer
favourable conditions (Beever and Bollard, 1970;
Domsch and Anderson, 1980). The nutrients in the
wastes included protein, carbohydrate and
minerals. Protein constitutes a significant portion
of microbial cells and thus is necessary for the
growth of microorganisms (Prescot and Harley,
2002). The protein content of the formulated
media must have ensured a good supply of
nitrogen while the carbohydrate content served as
additional carbon source both of which are
essential for good fungal growth. The mineral
content of the wastes in the formulated media was
probably useful for some aspects of the fungi’s
metabolism. Although, moisture (water) is
required by all organisms for their life processes
and fungi in particular require water for
extracellular digestion of nutrients (Pelczar et al.,
1993), the moisture content of each of the samples
has negligible or no effect on the growth of fungi
tested because they were grown in the media
containing water. In terms of mean radial growth,
Sweet Potato Peel Agar was found to be the best
media for growing three (Aspergillus niger,
Geotrichum candidum and Saccharomyces
cerevisiae) out of the four fungi. It thus produced
the highest growth rates in these three fungi.
According to Meletiadis et al. (2010),
optimal nutrient medium should provide not
simply adequate growth but the best possible
growth in order to allow molds and yeast grow
without restriction and express all phenotypes.
The ability of Sweet Potato Peel Agar to support
good growth of the fungi shows that it not only
contained the right nutrients but also probably
contained them in the right proportions. The fact
that the fungi grown on Sweet Potato Peel Agar
performed better in most cases than when they
were grown on the conventional Sabouraud’s
dextrose agar shows that Sweet Potato Peel Agar
could serve as a good and possibly cheaper
alternative medium for the cultivation of some soil
fungi.
Ruth et al. (2012) reported the use of
alternative culture media for growing fungi. The
P. Saranraj/International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural Sciences (IJIAS), 1(2): 59 – 71 67
©2017 Published by JPS Scientific Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
growth of the fungi on the formulated media
implies that the wastes (peels) which were used in
formulating the media contained the required
nutrients for fungal growth. Amadi and Moneke
(2012) also reported higher mycelia growth rate in
Purple sweet potato dextrose agar than in Yam
dextrose agar.
Fruit waste contains many reusable
substances of high value. The wastes from
canneries have high exploitation potential with
encouraging future. Furthermore, dietary fibers
and phenolic antioxidants could be used as
impending nutraceutic resource, capable of
offering significant low-cost nutritional dietary
supplement for low-income communities. The
booming market of functional food has created a
mammoth vista for utilization of natural resources.
If novel scientific and technological methods are
applied, valuable products from fruit wastes could
be obtained. In this regard, cheap substrates, such
as pineapple wastes have promising prospect.
Thus, environmentally polluting by-products
could be converted into products with a higher
economic value than the main product. However,
verification of this hypothesis is indispensible in
order to apply fruit cannery waste as industrial raw
materials.
6. Conclusion
Waste utilization in fruits and vegetable
processing industries is one of the important and
challengeable jobs around the world. It is
anticipated that the discarded fruits as well as its
waste materials could be utilized for further
industrial purposes viz. fermentation, extraction of
bioactive components, extraction of functional
ingredients etc. Fruit waste contains many
reusable substances of high value and novel
scientific technological methods are applied,
valuable products from fruit wastes could be
obtained. In this regard, cheap substrates, such as
fruit peel wastes have promising prospect. Thus,
environmentally polluting by-products could be
converted into products with a higher economic
value than the main product.
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DOI Number DOI: 10.22192/ijias.2017.1.2.4
How to Cite this Article:
P. Saranraj* and S. Anbu. 2017. Utilization of Agroindustrial wastes for the cultivation of
industrially important fungi – A Review. International Journal of Innovations in Agricultural
Sciences, 1 (2): 59 – 71.
DOI: 10.22192/ijias.2017.1.2.4