Abstract

This study is concerned with the isolation and screening of mould cultures for the biosynthesis of alpha amylase. Forty mould culture were isolated from soil and tested for the production of alpha amylase. Of all the culture tested, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae-20 and Aspergillus niger-34 gave maximum production of alpha amylase. These strains were tested for the screening of culture media and M1 containing yeast extract, peptone, soluble starch ammonium sulphate, CaCl2, MgSO4, FeSO4 in 100 ml of phosphate buffer gave maximum 2 4 4 production of alpha amylase by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, Aspergillus niger-34 gave insignificant result. Thus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae -20 was selected for the production of alpha amylase. The production of alpha amylase was reached optimum 72 h after inoculation at pH 5.5.