Abstract

Mango fruit processing industries generate two types of waste, including solid waste (peel and stones) and liquid waste (juice and wash water). Utilization of this waste is both a necessity and challenge. This work was aimed to investigate the suitability of dried mango peel for ethanol production. The mango peel contained good amount of reducing sugars up to 40% (w/v). Direct fermentation of mango peel extract gave only 5.13% (w/v) of ethanol. The rate of the fermentation was very slow. Nutrients such as yeast extract, peptone and wheat bran extract were tested for the supplementation of mango peel medium and it was observed that the nutrient supplementation increased the ethanol production significantly up to 7.14% (w/v). The suitability of wheat bran extract (WBE) based medium, which is cheap and abundantly available for mango peel fermentation was also discussed.

Key words: Mango peel, ethanol fermentation, nutrient supplementation, wheat bran extract