Vol. 3, Issue 9, Part D (2017)

Abstract
Azadirachta indica (Neem) seed cake is obtained as a by-product from Neem oil industry. The current study was focused on the solid-state fermentation of Azadirachta indica oil seed cake to produce commercially important extracellular lipase enzyme using isolated fungi species. The Penicillium species was isolated and further screened for extracellular lipase production. The lipase activity in the crude was found to be 2.74 U/ml/min. The pH-6.5 of the culture medium exhibited maximum lipase production. Further, the enzyme activity at different pH and temperature conditions revealed that the optimum pH is 7.5 & optimum temperature is 30 ËšC. The enzyme was further concentrated and fractionated by ammonium sulphate precipitation. Among different saturations the maximum enzyme was recovered at 80% saturation. The dialysed enzyme sample was immobilized using sodium alginate gel and the entrapped enzyme exhibited the lipase activity of 0.533U/ml/min. The Gas Chromatography profiles of transesterified samples indicated the effectiveness of enzyme catalysed transesterified samples (4h & 8h) over the base catalysed sample, with the drastic reduction in free fatty acids content indicating high conversion of fatty acids into their respective methyl esters.