Several natural isolates of Bacillus strains namely 5B, 12B, 16B, 18 and 24B
were grown on two different temperatures in submerged fermentation for the
raw-starch-digesting a-amylases production. All strains except Bacillus sp.
18 produced more ?-amylase on 37?C. The hydrolysis of raw corn starch
followed same pattern. Efficient hydrolysis was obtained with ?-amylases from
Bacillus sp. 5B, 12B, 16B and 24B grown on 37?C and Bacillus sp. 18 grown on
50?C. Zymography after isoelectric focusing shown that ?-amylases were
produced in multiple forms, from 2 to 6, depending on the strain when they
were growing at 37 ?C, while growing at 50?C induced only 1 or 2 isoforms.
TLC analysis of hydrolysis products of raw corn and soluble starch by
?-amylases revealed production of various mixtures of oligosaccharides. In
most cases G3 was the most dominant product from soluble starch while G2, G3
and G5 were the main products of raw starch hydrolysis. This indicates that
obtained a-amylases can be used for starch liquefying or
short-chain-oligosaccharide forming, depending on what type of starch (raw or
soluble) was used for the hydrolysis.