Twenty eight pre-identified fungal isolates and strains were tested qualitatively for their
cellulolytic activities, among which 12 superior producers were quantitatively tested. Three
Aspergillus spp. namely A5, A6 and A7 were found to be the best cellulolytic fungi, while
both Aspergillus terreus NRRL260 and Phanerochaete chrysosporium NRRL6361 were
found to be the best xylanase producers. On solid state fermentation (SSF) using pretreated
rice straw (RS), the Aspergillus spp. A5, A6 and A7 gave total cellulases (as FPase), exocellulases
(as CMCase) and cellobiase (as β-glucosidase) activities of ≥ 16, 130 and 21U.g-
1ds, respectively. On the other hand, Aspergillus terreus NRRL260 showed maximum
xylanases activity of 804 U.g-1ds. The recovered crude enzymes forming the crude enzyme
mixture (CEM) was concentrated (LCEM), ammonium sulfate fractionated (PPE1), were
semi-purified by gel permeation on Sephadex G100 and finally lyophilized to powder form
(PPE2). The resulting cellulases specific activities were 0.50, 0.68, 1.01 and 1.47 U.mg-1,
respectively. Those purification and concentration steps resulted in purification fold increase
by 1.28, 2.08 and 2.78 for LCEM, PPE1 and PPE2, respectively. PPE2 achieved maximum
degree of saccharification (DoS) at enzyme load ≥ 10 FPU, substrate concentration ≥ 5% and
incubation period after 48 hr to be 85%, 87% and 88%, respectively.