The microbial production of amylase inhibitor and its application. I. Isolation and cultivation of Streptomyces nigrifaciens NTU-3314

In the course of screening amylase inhibitor producing, microorganisms, a strain identified as Streptomyces nigrifaciens NTU-3314 was found to have the highest inhibitor-producing ability among the other isolated strains. This strain was aerobically cultured at 30 degrees C in a 5l jar fermentor with a working volume of 2l. The optimum cultural medium consisted of defatted soybean flake 3.0%, potato starch 4.0%, casein 0.6%, sucrose 0.6%, serine 0.02% and NaCl 0.8% (pH 7.0). With an aeration rate of 1.5 vvm, an agitation speed of 300 rpm and an inoculum of 15% seed (previously grown in seed medium 3), the highest amount of inhibitor was obtained after 24 hours of cultivation. The amylase inhibitor produced had inhibitory effects on both alpha-amylase and glucoamylase, but not on beta-amylase, alpha-glucosidase, beta-glucosidase or dextranase. It was quite stable in 0.1M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and nearly 100% of its activity was retained even after boiling at 100 degrees C for 20 min.