Production of α - Glucosidase Inhibitor by β - Glucosidase Inhibitor - Producing

A soil microorganism producing αand β-glucosidase inhibitors was identified as Bacillus lentimorbus, based on the fatty acid and morphological analyses, along with biochemical and physiological tests. The α-glucosidase inhibitor was highly produced by this strain in a culture medium containing 0.25% of sodium glutamate and 0.5% of glucose, pH 8.0 at 30C for 2 days. The α-glucosidase inhibitor from culture filtrate of this strain was identified as water soluble, organic solvent nonextractable, and heat stable. In addition to α-glucosidase inhibitor, this strain also produced β-glucosidase inhibitor in the same culture medium and this inhibitor showed an antifugal activity against Botrytis cinerea. While the production of αglucosidase inhibitor was decreased by a glucose concentration higher than 1%, the production of β-glucosidase inhibitor was not influenced by a glucose concentration higher than 20%. The α-glucosidase inhibitor from culture filtrate of this strain was separated from the β-glucosidase inhibitor through Sephadex G-100 column chromatography.