2. Materials and methods
2.1. Microorganisms, culture maintenance and inoculum preparation
The A. niger HFD5A-1 which was obtained from the IndustrialBiotechnology Research Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences,Universiti Sains Malaysia was maintained on potato dextrose agar(Merck, Germany) slant supplemented with 1.0% (w/v) citrus pectin(Sigma, Denmark) at room temperature (30 ± 2◦C) for 5 days aer-obically until sporulate, before keeping them at 4◦C until furtherused. Subculturing was carried out every three weeks to maintainits viability.The inoculum was prepared by adding 5.0 mL of sterile dis-tilled water to the agar slants and shaking vigorously. The sporesuspension obtained was adjusted to 1 × 106spores/mL using ahaemocytometer slide chamber (Neubauer, Germany) and used asthe inoculums.