Production of Endoglucanase, Beta-glucosidase and Xylanase by Bacillus licheniformis Grown on Minimal Nutrient Medium Containing Agriculture Residues

Bacillus licheniformis was grown in minimal nutrient medium containing 1% (w/v) of distillers dried grain with soluble (DDGS), palm kernel meal (PKM), wheat bran (WB) or copra meal (CM), and the enzyme activity of endoglucanase, β-glucosidase, xylanase and reducing sugars was measured to investigate a possibility of using cost-effective agricultural residues in producing cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes. The CM gave the highest endoglucanase activity of 0.68 units/mL among added substrates at 48 h. CM yielded the highest titres of 0.58 units/ml of β-glucosidase, compared to 0.33, 0.23, and 0.16 units/mL by PKM, WB, and DDGS, respectively, at 72 h. Xylanase production was the highest (0.34 units/mL) when CM was added. The supernatant from fermentation of CM had the highest reducing sugars than other additional substrates at all intervals (0.10, 0.12, 0.10, and 0.11 mg/mL respectively). It is concluded that Bacillus licheniformis is capable of producing multiple cellulo- and hemicellololytic enzymes for bioethanol production using cost-effective agricultural residues, especially CM, as a sole nutrient source.