Evaluation of Arachidonic Acid Production by Mortierella alpina in Solid State Fermentation Using Date Waste

Arachidonic acid (ARA) is an essential polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) that plays important roles in human’s health. The species of Mortierella genus are able to produce a wide range of PUFAs and investigations have shown that production of PUFAs especially ARA is influenced by several factors. Recently, Microbial production of ARA by M. alpina, using solid state fermentation (SSF) has been of great attention. ARA production was performed on date waste by Mortierell alpina CBS 528.72 in solid state fermentation (SSF) by Plackett Burman Design (PBD). In order to provide an appropriate source of nitrogen, soybean meal was added. The effect of eleven variables including substrate particle size, initial moisture content and pH of substrate, carbon to nitrogen ratio of substrate, supplementation of soybean and linseed oil (LSO), inoculation age, incubation temperature and time, heating pre-treatment time and supplementation of the nitrogen on the fourth day, were investigated. In the range of studied variables in this research, substrate initial moisture content of 70-75%, addition of 10 % (w.w-1) LSO, substrate particle size of 1.2-1.7 mm and addition of 4 % (w.w-1) nitrogen supplementations and inoculum age of 96 h, had significant effect on the increasing production of ARA. Maximum amount of arachidonic acid produced in this study was 4.66 mg.g-1 dry fermented substrate. By modifing the substrate and considering the above mentioned factors, a single cell oil with maximum amount of ARA by M. alpina can be abtained.