Although fungal growth was apparently abundant on all substrates,
there were large differences in the production of xylanase. Highest
xylanase activity (158.4 U/g) was obtained when wheat bran was
used as the substrate. The xylanase activity obtained with corn cob
(153.0 U/g) was only marginally lower than wheat bran (which is
statistically insignificant at p 0.05) followed by sugarcane bagasse
(129.9 U/g) and wheat straw (49.4 U/g). The xylanase activities
obtained with different substrates increased with the increasing
hemicellulose content of the substrate. These xylanase activities
were accompanied by very low cellulase activities; wheat straw
(2.0 fpu/g) < wheat bran (1.9 fpu/g) < corn cob (1.4 fpu/
g) < sugarcane bagasse (1.3 fpu/g).