The growth and enzyme production in microorganisms need optimum physical (temperature, pH, and aeration) and chemical (carbon, nitrogen and mineral ions) environment which have critical role in determining growth behaviour and biochemical production in cultured microorganisms. The present study aimed to investigate effect of different concentrations of organic nitrogen sources i.e. peptone, tryptone, soytone, beef extract, malt extract and yeast extract (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5% w/V) and inorganic nitrogen sources i.e. NaNO3 , KNO3 , (NH4 ) 2 SO4 , NH4Cl and (NH4 ) 2HPO4 (0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5% w/V) on growth and amylase (EC 3.2.1.1, 1, 4-á-D-glucanglucanohydrolase) enzyme production from Bacillus licheniformis JAR-26. Among the tested nitrogen sources, organic sources proved superior over inorganic sources and malt extract proved best for amylase production (maximum at 1.5%, 4.427 U/ml of medium) with growth/OD of 1.766 and bacteria could utilize 98.4% of the available sugar in the medium. Yeast extract was second suitable organic source for enzyme production (maximum enzyme production at 2%, 4.314 U/ml) and Growth/OD of 1.650, and bacteria could utilize 97.1% of total sugar in the medium. Soytone proved poorest organic nitrogen source for amylase production and growth of bacteria with maximum enzyme yield of 3.08 Uml-1 at 2.0% and growth/OD of 0.95 at 2%. Among the five inorganic nitrogen sources, none was found suitable for amylase production by B. licheniformis JAR-26.

Keywords: Amylase; Submerged Fermentation; Bacillus licheniformis JAR-26; Nitrogen Source