Integrative Extraction of Ergosterol, (1→3)-α-D-Glucan and Chitosan from Penicillium chrysogenum Mycelia*

Ergosterol,(1→3)-α-D-glucan and chitosan are important biomaterials. In this research, a process has been developed to integratively extract ergosterol, (1→3)-α-D-glucan, and chitosan from Penicillium chrysongenum mycelium. First, the mycelia are pretreated with 0.1mol · L−1 of NaOH. After recovery by centrifugation, the solid portion is made to undergo saponification and deacetylation reactions by addition of 2mol · L−1 NaOH and ethanol. After reaction, extraction is carried out by addition of petroleum ether, which separates the reaction mixture into two phases. The upper layer of petroleum ether contains extracted ergosterol, and the bottom layer of NaOH solution contains (1→3)-α-D-glucan; the chitosan is on the mycelia residuum. After isolation, the recovery yield of ergosterol is 0.52% of dry mycelium. That of (1→3)-α-D-glucan is about 8.2%; and chitosan is 5.7% with 86% deacetylation. The compositions have been characterized by IR, HPLC analyses.