FULL FACTORIAL DESIGN TO STUDY FERMENTATIVE PRODUCTION OF INULINASE USING INULIN FROM KUTH (SAUSSUREA-LAPPA) ROOT POWDER BY ASPERGILLUS-NIGER VAN TEIGHEM UV11 MUTANT

Kuth (Saussurea lappa) as a source of inulin for fermentative producti on of inulinase has been tested for the first time. Preliminary shake- flask experiments in the fermentative production of inulinase using ku th as the carbon source, in combination with different organic and ino rganic nitrogen sources, gave the highest yield of inulinase activity (302 Uml(-1)) with corn steep liquor as the nitrogen source. The full factorial design using 3(3)=27 experiments with varying combinations o f kuth and CSL concentrations and agitation rates was tried The result s obtained were analysed using SPSS/PC+ (Version 4.0). This is the fir st use of a full factorial method for optimising fermentative producti on of inulinase.