Proximate constituents of raw material influence the bioconversion process which decides the approaches to be followed for the
processing of the material. Hence, the samples were analyzed for
their proximate composition. Proximate analysis of C. forskohlii
roots showed them to be a rich source of starch (18–20%), cellulose
(14–15%), hemicelluloses (6–7%) and pectin (3–4%). Proximate
analysis and carbohydrate profiling of C. forskohlii roots are shown
in Table 1. Hydrolysis of starch was achieved with 16 U (per g dry
weight of C. forskohlii roots) of Stargen
Ò
002 at pH 5.0 (sodium cit-
rate buffer) at 50 °C for 72 h and resulted reducing sugars was
found to be 32.6 ± 0.34 g/l. Hydrolysis of cellulose was achieved
Ò
with 60 FPU (per g dry weight of C. forskohlii roots) of Accellerase 1500 at pH 5.0 at 50 °C for 72 h and resulting reducing sugar con- centration was found to be 21.2 ± 0.44 g/l. Combined hydrolysis of starch and cellulose produced 41.2 ± 0.12 g/l of reducing sugars of which the glucose content was 32.23 ± 1.33 g/l. All experiments were performed on the basis of glucose content of the root hydrol- ysates. Samples were drawn at regular intervals and analyzed for reducing sugars by 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method. Glucose analysis was performed by using YSI glucose analyser (YSI Life Sciences, USA).