• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.351-361
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• 2000

The juice extract of Rehmannia glutinosa Liboschitz was used to improve the productivity of ethanol in alcohol fermentation process using a 5 L fermentor under batch and fed-batch cultivations. For batch cultivation, both cell density and ethanol production were increased as the extract of R. glutinosa was increased, showing 11.8 (g/L) of maximum cell density and 0.092 (% /hr) of maximum alcohol productivity in adding 30% (v/v) of the extract. However, in adding more than 40% of the extract both cell growth and ethanol production were dropped. The cell growth was severely inhibited in 50% addition. It was found that fed-batch cultivation in adding 30% of the extract of R. glutinosa was an effective process than batch cultivation, yielding up to 30% cell growth and ethanol production. This ethanol productivity was also 30-40% higher than that obtained from a conventional alcohol fermentation. It can tell that dried R. glutinosa Liboschitz is to be used for both enhancing the yield of alcohol fermentation and utilizing biologically active substances possibly transported from R. glutinosa Liboschitz into fermented broth.