Bacterial Cellulose Production by Pure Culture of Acetobacter xylinum in Sweet Black Tea Medium

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a versatile biopolymer synthesized by bacteria through the conversion of carbon sources available in the culture medium into polysaccharides. In this study, the impact of inoculum size, medium composition, and cultivation conditions on BC production by Acetobacter xylinum was studied. The medium supplemented with 1.5 g/L (NH_4)_2SO_4 as nitrogen source and 1% ethanol as addition carbon source, significantly enhanced BC, and acid production up to 9.82±0.19 g/L and 6.75±0.28 g/L. Static fermentation conditions gave higher BC yield than agitated conditions. This study demonstrates that it was possible to produce BC using sweet black tea based medium, which is low-cost and may contribute to the cost-effective BC production at industrial scale.