Leaching Approach for β-Glucosidase Extraction from Fermented Rice Husk in Solid State Cultivation by Aspergillus protuberus

Environmental problems are caused by the disposal of agrowastes in developing countries. It is imperative to convert such wastes into useful products, which require enzymes such as β-glucosidase. β-Glucosidase has variety of applications in biotechnology including food, textile, detergents, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical and biofuel industries. β-Glucosidase production was performed using the locally isolated Aspergillus protuberus using best growth circumstances on rice husk in solid-state fermentation (SSF). Leaching of β-glucosidase from fermented rice husk with number of solvents to evaluate their extraction efficacy. Among the different solvents examined, acetate buffer (0.02 M, pH 5.0) proved to be the best solvent. The subsequent parameters were optimized with acetate buffer. Two washes with acetate buffer each by shaking (30 min) in a ratio of 1 g of rice husk: 5 ml of acetate buffer together attained maximum recovery of β-glucosidase with 41.95 U/g of rice husk.