*1.2.4 Production of pectinase*

Fermentation technology has been effectively used in pectinase production by both fungus as well as bacterial strains. On the basis of production of pectinase, SSF fermentation provides higher productivity as compared to SmF fermentation [37]. Even with the advantage of high productivity, the industrial application of SSF is hard to visualize due to difficultly in product recovery. SmF is well developed fermentation technique used for large-scale production of metabolites and technically easier to perform as compared to SSF [38].

#### *1.2.5 Biochemical properties of pectinase*

Biochemical properties of pectinase are very important for their commercialization on industrial scale. The characteristics of pectinase produced from different microorganisms have been reported, and the biochemical properties of enzyme were varied from source to source [39–41]. The pectinase from various microorganism has different range of optimum temperature (30–60°C) and pH (3.0–9.0) for maximum enzymatic activities [40]. They also have different molecular weight, thermal stability and kinetic parameters [11]. Most of the pectinase have been reported to perform maximum activity in range of 40–50°C [42–44]. Mohamed *et al*. [45] reported that pectinase from *Trichoderma harzianum* showed 100% stability at 30°C after 60 minutes of incubation. The stability of enzyme provides valuable information about its structure and function. *Bacillus* sp. MG-cp-2 produced alkaline pectinase having stability at broad pH range and retained 80% of its initial activity at room temperature after 24 hours [46]. The activity of pectinase was increased in the presence of Fe2+, Mn2+, Ca2+ and Cu2+, but strongly inhibited by Mg2+ [41]. Hg2+, Zn2+ and Cu2+ were found to inhibit the pectinase activity, while Mn2+ and Co2+ enhanced the pectinase activity from *S. sclerotinium* [47].
