Production of fructose from inulin using mixed inulinases from Aspergillus niger and Candida guilliermondii

Two new effective microbial producers of inulinases were isolated from Jerusalem artichoke tubers grown in Thailand and identified as Aspergillus niger TISTR 3570 and Candidaguilliermondii TISTR 5844. The inulinases produced by both these microorganisms were appropriate for hydrolysing inulin to fructose as the principal product. An initial inulin concentration of ∼100 g l−1 and the enzyme concentration of 0.2 U g−1 of substrate, yielded 37.5 g l−1 of fructose in 20 h at 40°C when A. niger TISTR 3570 inulinase was the biocatalyst. The yield of fructose on inulin was 0.39 g g−1. Under identical conditions, the yeast inulinase afforded 35.3 g l−1 of fructose in 25 h. The fructose yield was 0.35 g g−1 of substrate. The fructose productivities were 1.9 g l−1 h−1 and 1.4 g l−1 h−1 for the mold and yeast enzymes, respectively. After 20 h of reaction, the mold enzyme hydrolysate contained 53% fructose and more than 41% of initial inulin had been hydrolysed. Using the yeast enzymes, the hydrolysate contained nearly 38% fructose at 25 h and nearly 36% of initial inulin had been hydrolysed. The A. niger TISTR 3570 inulinases exhibited both endo-inulinase and exo-inulinase activities. In contrast, the yeast inulinases displayed mainly exo-inulinase activity. The mold and yeast crude inulinases mixed in the activity ratio of 5:1 proved superior to individual crude inulinases in hydrolysing inulin to fructose. The enzyme mixture provided a better combination of endo- and exo-inulinase activities than did the crude extracts of either the mold or the yeast individually.