Fungal solid state culture of palm kernel cake

Palm kernel cake (PKC), an agro-industrial by-product used extensively in the animal feed industry, has limited use in fish feeds due to its high fiber and low protein contents. In this study, PKC was processed under solid state culture conditions with five fungal strains and the effect of this fungal culturing on the amino acid, fatty acid, cellulose and hemicellulose fractions was evaluated. Fungal strains used were Sclerotium rolfsii, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma longiobrachiatum, Trichoderma koninggi and Aspergillus niger. Fungal growth was carried out at 50% moisture level and 1% inoculum level for 7 days. A significant increase in protein content from 18.76% to 32.79% was obtained by growing T. longibrachiatum on PKC. Cellulose level decreased significantly from 28.31% to 12.11% for PKC cultured with T. longibrachiatum, and hemicellulose from 37.03% to 19.01% for PKC cultured with A. niger. Fungal culturing of PKC brought about an increase in the level of unsaturated- and a decrease in the level of the saturated-fatty acids.