Ultrasonic Irradiation Enables Facile Production of Lovastatin from Sugar Cane Bagasse

[Image: see text] This study investigated the effect of ultrasound-assisted hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) pretreatment on sugar cane bagasse (SCB) followed by Monascus purpureus TISTR 3003 cultivation for lovastatin production under solid-state fermentation (SSF). Optimization of the pretreatment conditions was investigated using a response surface methodology (RSM). Within the range of the selected operating conditions, the optimized values of H(2)O(2) concentration, amplitude, SCB dosage, and sonication time were found to be 2.74%, 83.22 μm, 2.84% and 52.29 min, respectively. The R(2) value of 0.9749 indicated that the fitted model is in good agreement with the predicted and actual lovastatin production. On the basis of the optimum conditions, the lovastatin production was 2347.10 ± 17.19 μg/g, which is 2.4 times higher than that under untreated conditions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis explored the surface structure of the untreated SCB, which showed a compact rigid structure. In contrast, treated SCB had a rough surface structure and cracks as a result of the pretreatment.