Abstract
Trichoderma is a ubiquitous fungus found in air, soil, plant materials and other substrates. Twenty four isolates of Trichoderma belonging to four species T. harzianum, T. hamatum, T. koningii and T. pseudokoningii were procured from First Fungal Culture Bank of Pakistan (FCBP), Institute of Agriculture Sciences (IAGS), University of the Punjab, Lahore. All species were screened out for their enzyme production potential biochemically on different substrates. The isolates exhibited variable efficiency on producing amylase, cellulase, catalase, urease, lipase, pectinase enzymes. In addition, alkaloid estimation was also carried out through Ehrlich test. The results revealed that except for cellulase productivity of all other test enzymes was comparatively low. The highest amylase activity was recorded in T. harzianum; T. koningii and T. pseudokoningii. In alkaloids estimation test, T. harzianum showed high activity by producing violet ring around the plug of mycelium. In lipase and urease test, T. harzianum, T. koningii and T. hamatum displayed high enzymatic activity. In case of pectinase estimation, almost same trend was observed regarding different isolates as in case of lipase activity. The study clearly indicated that some strains of Trichoderma species like T. harzianum and T. koningii can be exploited in industrial production of fruit juices by cellulase enzyme activity along with further genetic engineering with the selected isolates.
