Hyaluronic acid (HA) production using a dairy industrial waste is a more cost-efficient strategy than using an expensive synthetic medium. In this study, we investigated the production of HA using Streptococcus thermophilus under shake flask conditions using dairy industrial waste as nutritional supplements, namely whey permeate (WP) and whey protein hydrolysate (WPH). Preliminary screening using Plackett-Burman design exhibited WP, WPH, initial pH, and inoculum size as significant factors influencing HA titer. Response surface methodology design of four factors was formulated at three levels for enhanced production of HA. Shake flask HA fermentation by S. thermophilus was performed under global optimized process conditions and the optimal HA titer (342.93 mg L(-1)) corroborates with Box-Behnken design prediction. The molecular weight of HA was elucidated as 9.22-9.46 kDa. The ultralow-molecular weight HA reported in this study has a potential role in drug and gene delivery applications.
Keywords: Dairy industrial waste; hyaluronic acid; optimization; response surface methodology; whey protein hydrolysate.