Lactic acid production by L. curvatus in sugarcane molasses

Abstract

Lactic acid is important due to its various applications. The bulk of world lactic acid production is used by the food industry and the rest is used in pharmaceutical, textile, leather, cosmetic and chemical industries. In this work, a 33 incomplete factorial design of the response-surface methodology was used to determine the best concentration of sugarcane molasses, yeast extract and peptone in the culture medium for the development of batch lactic fermentation by Lactobacillus curvatus. The fermentation was carried out at 37 ºC for 48 hours without agitation. The mathematical model given by the responsesurface methodology indicated a concentration of 10% (w/v) of sugarcane molasses, 2% (w/v) of yeast extract and 4% (w/v) of peptone as the best conditions for the composition of culture medium for the lactic acid production by L. curvatus. Under these conditions, lactic acid production was 30,5 g/L, comparable with the result obtained in MRS medium, which produced 32,0g/L of lactic acid. Considering the low cost and high availability of the sugarcane molasses, it was concluded that it represented a good culture medium for lactic fermentation. Sugarcane molasses at 10% (w/v) supplemented with yeast extract at 2% (w/v) and peptone at 4% (w/v) was used in the 3L batch lactic fermentation producing 37,5g/L of lactic acid.