Banana peel: A novel substrate for cellulase production under solid-state fermentation

The feasibility of using banana peel for the production of cellulase by Trichoderma viride GIM 3.0010 in solid-state fermentation was evaluated in this study. The effect of incubation time, incubation temperature, initial moisture content of the medium, inoculum size and supplementation of carbon sources and nitrogen sources on cellulase production was investigated. When banana peel was moistened to the moisture content of 65% with the inoculum size of 1.5 x 10(9) spores / flask and incubated at 30 degrees C for 144 h, the maximum activities of filter paper activity (FPA), carboxy methyl cellulase sodium activity (CMCase) and beta-glucosidase (BG) reached 5.56, 10.31 and 3.01 U/gds, respectively. These results indicated that banana peel provided necessary nutrients for cell growth and cellulase synthesis. It can be used as a potential substrate for cellulase production by T. viride GIM 3.0010 under solid-state fermentation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on cellulase production using banana peel.