Production of chitin from some soil fungi

Abstract

Crustacean shells constitute the traditional and current commercial source of chitin. Conversely, the control of fungal fermentation processes to produce quality chitin makes fungal mycelia an attractive alternative source. Our study examined the production of chitin from mycelia of different fungal isolatesrecovered from soil samples collected from different places in El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt, during 2021. Among the 21 isolate 9 were identified with standard key and microbial expert and because these isolates are pure isolates.In batch culture, isolates were screened to determine the fastest growing and greatest chitin‐yielding fungi. Optimum chitin yields were observed for most cultures at 28°C on Czapek's dox (CD) for 7 days. From the results we observed that; the production of chitin (by a dry weight method) ranged from 15.41 to 54.78 %of the isolate dry weight, the Fusarium KYM3 was the best producer of chitin of the isolates examined and Penicillium KYM6 was the lowest producer of chitin of the isolates examined.