Abstract

---

Corn waste contains moisture, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin which make it a good raw material for making substrate in the production of organic acids with the aid of bacteria. These bacteria, during metabolism are able to produce acids that can be used as solvents. The proximate analysis of corn waste (corn cob) was determined using AOAC methods. The bacteria were isolated and identified using serial dilution method, pour plating technique, culturing, subculturing using streaking method, gram staining technique, biochemical tests etc. Physicochemical analyses such as titratable acidity and specific gravity were determined using AOAC methods. The corn waste was hydrolyzed using H2SO4. The hydrolyzed sample was neutralized using 1% NaOH. Ten grams of the corn waste was added and then fermented for 96hours. From the results, the composition of corn cob for cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, moisture, ash, protein, fat and starch were 44.02%, 32.72%, 11.30%, 6.02%, 2.23%, 2.89%, 0.30% and 0.54% respectively. The bacteria isolated and identified were Lactobacillus casei, Gluconobacter frateuri and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The titratable acidity increased from 0.02mol/dm3 to 0.06mol/dm3. The specific gravity decreased from 1.0010 to 0.9641. This study shows that corn waste (corn cob) contain vital nutrients which support the growth of bacteria that are of industrial importance in the production of lactic acids. Hence it is recommended for industrial production of lactic acids

Keywords: Proximate analysis, cellulose, hemicellulose, titratable acidity, organic acids