Xylooligosaccharides production by crude microbial enzymes from agricultural waste without prior treatment and their potential application as nutraceuticals

- Efficient bioconversion to XOs of agricultural residues with no prior pretreatment.
- High Yield (1 gm%) of XOs using crude xylanase.
- Prebiotic application of XOs using 10 standard probiotic cultures.
- Antioxidant activity of XOs.

Aspergillus fumigatus R1, on submerged fermentation using agricultural residues as carbon source produced extracellular xylanase (152 IU/ml after 96 h of incubation at 37 °C with constant shaking at 100 rpm). A maximum yield of 1 gm% Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) mixture was obtained after 12 h by enzymatic hydrolysis of xylan rich wheat husk without any prior pretreatment using the crude enzyme without any purification. HP-TLC data confirmed the presence of an array of XOS for its prebiotic properties by carrying out studies on ten standard probiotic cultures. Six of ten probiotic cultures were able to utilize XOS produced from agricultural wastes and showed remarkable growth in the media containing XOS as the sole source of carbon. XOS mixture also exhibited concentration dependent anti-oxidant activity. Thus, the results showed that XOS produced from agricultural residues have great prebiotic potential and good antioxidant activity; therefore, it can be used in food-related applications.