Analytical Sciences

Cyclic Voltammetric Measurements of Growth of Aspergillus terreus

Sreenath SUBRAHMANYAM,*  Narendran KODANDAPANI,** Kumaran SHANMUGAM,* Karunakaran MOOVARKUMUTHALVAN,* D. JEYAKUMAR,*** and T. V. SUBRAMANIAN*

*Department of Chemical Engineering, A. C. College of Technology, Anna University, Madras 600 025, India
**Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
***Electrodics and Electrocatalysis Division, Central Electrochemical Research Institute CECRI-CSIR, Karaikudi 630 006, India

A detailed study using the cyclic voltammogram was done on the live cells of Aspergillus terreus. The peak current values were obtained for different days of growth and plotted against time. The response of cyclic voltammogram showed the phases of the growth of the fungus. The growth curve obtained matched well with the conventional methodology, which assesses the increase of dry weight of the organisms against time. The electrochemical method is more advantageous because it is easy to assess and consumes less time. Further the electrochemical method clearly shows the decline phase which is generally not very defined in the conventional method of assessment of the growth curve. It was confirmed by further experiments that the metabolites were responsible for the anodic peak and not the biomass. Further work is in progress in order to analyze the metabolite(s) that is/are responsible for the anodic peak.

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