African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (22), pp. 2612-2615, 19 November 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Department of Biochemistry/Biotechnology, Faculty of Applied and Natural Sciences, Ebonyi State University, P. M. B. 053, Abakaliki, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: afiukwa@yahoo.com.

Accepted 16 October, 2007

The effects of mixed carbon sources on growth and production of vitamins E and A by Euglena gracilis cells were investigated in batch culture. The cells were grown mixotrophically in glucose (G), ethanol (E) and a mixture of glucose and ethanol (EG). Cell growth was measured by counting the cell number with microscope, while vitamin concentrations were measured spectrophotometrically. Growth of the cells was found to be much better in the mixed carbon culture (EG) than in either glucose (G) or ethanol (E) alone. Significance difference was detected (P < 0.05) on cell growth and ranked as [EG] > [G] > [E]. The average cell density in the mixed carbon culture reached 2.34 ± 0.109 x 10⁷ cells/ml after 7 days. It was about 1.63 ± 0.089 x 10⁷ cells/ml in glucose and 0.70 ± 0.084 x 10⁷ cells/ml in ethanol. The result also showed that ethanol alone was the best carbon source for production of the vitamins. The results indicated that the mixed carbon culture enhanced growth of the cells, but cellular contents of the antioxidant vitamins were low. Thus, the mixed substrate system has a high potential for large-scale production of Euglena biomass.

Key words: mixed substrate culture, Euglena gracilis, cell growth, vitamin production.