CH. PAVANA JYOTHI, R. SREENIVAS RAO AND L. VENKATESWAR RAO
Abstract
Natural habitats of yeasts were examined for the presence of strains, which were able to produce xylitol and ethanol from D-xylose. Six different MTCC strains of Candida sp. (4), Pachysolen sp. (1) and Pichia sp. (1) have also been examined for the production of ethanol and xylitol from D-xylose. The isolated strains showed the ability to assimilate D-xylose, but the production of ethanol and xylitol was very low, whereas the six MTCC strains fermented D-xylose. Candida boidinii produced ethanol, Candida tropicalis, Candida parapsitosis, Pichia jadinii produced xylitol, Candida intermedia and Pachysolen tannophiles produced both ethanol and xylitol from D-xylose. The yeast Candida intermedia MTCC-1404 has been selected for further study, because it has produced more amount of ethanol (70%) and xylitol (11.1%). The effect of different carbon sources for the production of ethanol from D-xylose has been studied using Candida intermedia. In the presence of maltose, the ethanol yield increased to 9% and with sucrose, ethanol yield increased to 5%.