Effect of Cultural Conditions on Lovastatin Production by Aspergillus Niger Sar I Using Combination of Rice Bran and Brown Rice as Substrate.

A local fungal isolate Aspergillus niger SAR I produced high level of lovastatin activity when cultivated under solid substrate fermentation using a combination of rice bran and brown rice as substrate. The highest lovastatin production of 305.08±14.65 ug/g dry solid and 12±0.01 mg glucosamine/g substrate of fungal growth were achieved at the 10th day of cultivation after using all the optimized parameters (5 gram of unground rice bran and brown rice at the ratio of 1:1, water content of 70% (v/w) using sterile distilled water, inoculum size at 1x105 spores/mL and cultivation temperature of room temperature of 30±2 ºC). There was about 90.64% increment in lovastatin production after the optimization of cultural conditions compared with before optimization condition.