초록
<P>Fermentation is one of the industrially important processes for the development of microbial metabolites that has immense applications in various fields. This has prompted to employ fermentation as a major technique in the production of phytase from microbial source. In this study, a comparison was made between submerged (SmF) and solid-state fermentations (SSF) for the production of phytase from <I>Aspergillus niger</I> CFR 335 and <I>Aspergillus ficuum</I> SGA 01. It was found that both the fungi were capable of producing maximum phytase on 5th day of incubation in both submerged and solid-state fermentation media. <I>Aspergillus niger</I> CFR 335 and <I>A. ficuum</I> produced a maximum of 60.6 U/gds and 38 U/gds of the enzyme, respectively, in wheat bran solid substrate medium. Enhancement in the enzyme level (76 and 50.7 U/gds) was found when grown in a combined solid substrate medium comprising wheat bran, rice bran, and groundnut cake in the ratio of 2 : 1 : 1. A maximum of 9.6 and 8.2 U/mL of enzyme activity was observed in SmF by <I>A. niger</I> CFR 335 and <I>A.ficuum</I>, respectively, when grown in potato dextrose broth.</P>