Detoxification of gossypol in cottonseed meal by Pleurotus flabellatus strain M-1 under solid state fermentation

A solid state fermentation (SSF) process was optimized for the reduction of free gossypol (FG) and bound gossypol (BG) in cottonseed meal (CSM) using Pleurotus flabellatus strain M-1. The optimization of SSF process showed that CSM autoclaved at 110°C, inoculated with P.flabellatus M-1, maintained with 80% initial moisture content, pH in nature, incubated for 48 hours at 30°C resulted in reduction of BG from 3.0 to 1.4% and FG from 1.0 to 0.3% which corresponds to 53.3 and 70.0%, respectively. The study also revealed the crude protein content (%) of inoculated CSM increased from 27.67 to 33.40 compared to uninoculated CSM. Thus, the P. flabellatus M-1 treated CSM is having potential for use in non-ruminants feed; however, the future work may be focused on evaluation of the treated CSM in feed trials like poultry to find its suitability for use in non-ruminants feed.