Production and Optimization of Lovastatin by Microbial Fermentation using Aspergillus terreus

Abstract

In the recent times, the fungus Aspergillus (A.) terreus has been highly popularized regarding its domination for the production of the "crackerjack" drugs known as statins, particularly lovastatin. The aim of this research was the production of lovastatin which is a known cholesterol-lowering drug, through microbial fermentation using A. terreus. Besides, it also aimed to analyze certain bioactive chemical products and evaluation of such antibacterial and antifungal products, if any produced. Bioactives (chemical compounds often referred as secondary metabolites) were analyzed using the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy technique (GC-MS) technique. A. terreus is known to produce a vast variety of important secondary metabolites with high biological activities. The extraction of the natural statins such as lovastatin or mevastatin from A. terreus is seen as one of the major breakthrough in the field of Industrial Microbiology/Fermentation Technology. Here we report the Aspergillus terreus NBRC (IFO) 31217 (Strain I) and ATCC 11877 (Strain II) don't produce lovastatin but they produce important bioactive compounds of high commercial value like Isovaline (C5H11NO2) and Silane etc.