PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF A MICROBIOLOGICAL GROWTH MEDIUM FORMULATED FROM CATFISH WASTE PEPTONE

Abstract

A water-soluble, heat-stable peptone was extracted-from enzymatically digested channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) heads and skins. Proximate analyses showed that the peptone was composed of 89.02% protein (Kjeldahl N × 6.25), 10.42% ash and 0.44% fat. The peptone contains all amino acids demonstrated to be present in concentrations of greater than 1.0% in six other commercially available microbiological peptones used for comparative purposes in the study. Total cell mass production on catfish and test peptone media by microorganisms representing 13 genera was measured. Catfish peptone supported luxuriant growth of the test organisms and an accumulative average of dry cell mass weights produced by the organisms revealed that the catfish peptone ranked third out of the seven peptones tested. This new peptone offers the clinical and industrial microbiologist a potentially valuable ingredient for formulation of growth and fermentation media.