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Chicken feather peptone (CFP) derived from poultry waste is a rich source of essential minerals and amino acids. This, along with suitable carbon source, can be used as a low cost complex supplemental nutrient source for microbial fermentation. In the present work, CFP blended with sucrose was evaluated for the production of levan using Bacillus subtilis MTCC 441. Amount of CFP added to the medium significantly influenced levan production and it was found that at a concentration 2 g/L, maximum levan yield of 0.26 ± 0.04 g/g sucrose was obtained. The levan yield obtained with CFP as a low cost supplemental nutrient source was comparable with that obtained from commercial medium (0.31 ± 0.02 g/g sucrose). Levan produced using CFP was tested on primary cell lines at various concentrations (100-1000 μM) and found to be non-toxic and bio-compatible in nature. This indicates that CFP could be used as low cost nutrient source for levan production., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Levan is a water soluble biopolymer widely used in food, pharma, personal care and aquaculture industries. In this work, levan was synthesized by Bacillus subtilis MTCC 441 using sucrose as a sole carbon source. Effects of pH, sucrose concentration, nitrogen source, nitrogen concentration, inoculum size and agitation speed on levan production were studied. Yeast extract (YE) was found to be the best nitrogen source. Sucrose concentration - 100 g/L, pH - 7, YE concentration - 2 g/L, inoculum size 10% (v/v) and RPM - 150 were found to be optimal values for levan production. Effects of precipitation pH (3-12), choice of solvent (ethanol, isopropanol, acetone, and methanol) and supernatant to solvent ratio (1:1 to 1:6) on levan yield were also studied. Isopropanol resulted in maximum levan recovery among the four solvents considered. Optimal pH and supernatant to solvent ratio for levan precipitation were found to be 11 and 1:5, respectively. Corresponding levan yield was 0.395 g/g of sucrose supplied. The product obtained was characterized using FTIR, 1 H-NMR, 13 C-NMR, and GPC. The cytotoxicity of the precipitated levan was studied on EA.hy926 cell line using MTT assay and the compound was proven to be non-toxic to the cells., (© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.)