Influência no culƟvo de Rhodotorula gluƟnis em manipueira para a produção de suplemento vitamínico e proteico

Abstract

Cassava wastewater is the residue generated from process of pressing cassava in the production of cassava flour. It is a liquid that has a high content of hydrocyanic acid in its composition. In addition, cassava wastewater has soluble sugars, which makes it a rich substrate in carbon source. However, cassava wastewater can be used for submerged fermentation to obtain biomolecules such as carotenoids. Carotenoids are natural pigments that can be found in foods as well as produced by microorganisms such as Rhodotorula glutinis. However, carotenoids are not only natural pigments, they also present pro-vitamin A activity which is responsible for preventing degenerative diseases. In order to understand the influence of substrate concentration on the development of R. glutinis, cultures were performed varying initial concentrations of cassava wastewater at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The pH of each culture was corrected to 7 using 2% NaOH solution and fermentation was carried out for a period of 48 hours, where samples were taken for determination of reducing sugars as well as for analysis of biomass growth. Obtaining the behavior of biomass growth by substrate consumption, it was possible to obtain kinetic data for each experiment, such as the substrate conversion factor in cells and the maximum specific velocity for each one of them.