Feruloyl esterase production by Aspergillus terreus CECT 2808 and subsequent application to enzymatic hydrolysis

• Agro-food by-products can be adequately valorized for feruloyl esterases generation.
• Enzymatic extracts produced by fermentation of these agro-food wastes exhibited a good performance during the hydrolyses.
• These enzymatic extracts showed a positive hydrolytic aptitude for ferulic acid release from these substrates.
• Xylanases present the enzymatic extracts seemed to cooperate with feruloyl esterases in the release of ferulic acid.
• The xylanase/FAE ratio of the enzymatic extracts is an important factor to obtain an optimum feruloyl esterase extract.

Ferulic acid esterases (FAE) were produced by Aspergillus terreus CECT 2808 from vine trimming shoots (VTS) and corn cob. Later, the fungal extracts thus obtained were used to enzymatically release ferulic acid (FA) from both substrates. Our findings showed a higher FAE activity in the enzymatic extracts produced on corn cob (0.070 ± 0.004 U/mL). Nevertheless, the enzymatic extracts produced on VTS demonstrated a better performance for FA release from both corn cob (2.05 ± 0.01 mg/g) and VTS (0.19 ± 0.003 mg/g). This result was probably because of the higher xylanase/FAE ratio determined in VTS extract. Therefore, an additional assay was carried out by supplementing corn cob extract with a commercial xylanase to test the influence of FAE/xylanase ratio in FA release. The results revealed the relevance of the FAE/xylanase ratio for an optimal FA release.