The production of cell-associated camptothecin (CPT) from an endophytic fungus Fusarium oxysporum NFX06 isolated from Nothapodytes foetida and its kinetics studies were proposed. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was used to construct a model to describe the effects of substrate concentration. Three independent variables (dextrose, peptone, and MgSO4) were successfully employed to study the yield of CPT under submerged fermentation. The maximum yield of CPT obtained from CCD was about 598.0 ng/g biomass. The model-validated optimum predicted CPT yield and experimental CPT yield from the biomass were found to be 628.08 ng/g and 610.09 ng/g at the concentrations of dextrose 42.64 (g/L), peptone 9.23 (g/L), and MgSO4 0.26 (g/L) respectively. The predicted yield of CPT was 4.90% higher than the value obtained from CCD and 2.85% higher than the value obtained from experiment conducted at optimum conditions. The kinetic parameters, maximum specific growth rate μmax=1.212 day(-1), growth-associated CPT production coefficient (α=29.35 ng/g biomass), and non-growth-associated CPT production coefficient (β=0.03 ng CPT/g biomass-day) were obtained. The logistic model was found suitable to predict mycelial growth with a high determination coefficient (R2). Luedeking-Piret and modified Luedeking-Piret models were employed to represent the product kinetics and substrate consumption kinetics. A good concurrence was found between the experimental and predicted values, representing that the unstructured models were able to illustrate the fermentation profile effectively.
Keywords: Fusarium oxysporum; Nothapodytes foetida; camptothecin (CPT); modeling; response surface methodology (RSM).