Production of natural organic gluconates

Abstract

The present invention discloses the conversion of non-edible grade organic maize or wheat into monosaccharides by enzyme hydrolysis. The generated glucose at 14-16% is used to produce natural, organic gluconic acid by microbial fermentation of three strains Aspergillus niger NCIM 545, Penicillium notatum NCIM 745 and Penicillium chrysogenum NCIM 709. These strains are improved by unique media constituents and parameters for product yield enhancement along with the reduced time of gluconic acid production by 15-20 h. Further, gluconic acid is fortified with calcium or sodium or magnesium or ferrous to produce respective gluconate salts which were processed by a set of downstream processes including spray drying to obtain in powder form. These organic gluconates have immense applications in food, pharma, feed, and construction sectors for supplying organic source as well as minerals. This route of gluconic acid and its salts production is robust simple, cost-effective and less time taking by using eco-friendly biotechnological processes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.