A Study of growth and chitin-Glucan complex production kinetics in submerged culture of medicinal fungus Ganoderma lucidum

Ganoderma lucidum is one of the best-known medicinal mushrooms in the world. It contains substantial amounts of intra- and extracellular secondary metabolites and polysaccharides each with its own specific medicinal and medical uses. The chitin-glucan complex (CGC) is considered one of the important polysaccharides of this fungus. Among the 10 various culture media that were studied, the one containing PDB at 24g/l, peptone at 1g/l, and with the dry weight of cells of 11.6 g/l, the produced CGC of 3.2g/l, and with 27.6 percent CGC in the dry weight of the cells was selected as the suitable culture medium. FTIR analysis was performed for characterization of the produced CGC and its antibacterial properties were studied. The obtained time profile for CGC growth and production was 20 days and, using the logistic growth model and the Lodding-Pipet equation, the calculated specific growth rate of Ganoderma lucidum (μm) and the volumetric productivity for the product were 2.85 g CGC L-1day-and 0.5274 day-1, respectively. The calculations indicated there were high degrees of conformance between the model and the laboratory data related to kinetic characteristics of cell growth (R2= 0.9679) and to CGC production (R2=0.9901). Therefore, the introduced kinetic model can serve as an effective guide to control the fermentation process in industrial production of the valuable CGC polymer.