Soyasapogenols have greater in vitro cellular anticancer activity compared to their corresponding glycosides. Soyasapogenol B (SB) has many medicinal applications due to hepatoprotective, antivirus, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic and anticancer activities. SB can be produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of soyasaponins (SS) using microorganisms having saponin hydrolase (SH) activity. SH production by Aspergillus flavus has been modeled and optimized using Taguchi’s orthogonal methodology. L30 array with four factors at three different levels was constructed using Design-Expert software. The ANOVA analysis revealed maximum F ratio of 43.71 in case of SS concentration and consequently proved to be the most influential factor with a contribution percentage of 31.65%. The optimum conditions for maximum production of SH activity and SB yield were; 1% glucose, 1.3% SS, medium pH 7 and 4 days incubation period. The produced model has been validated and the results showed 79.06% validation confidence. An enhancement of 137.3 % in SH production compared to the original production medium was detected and SB yield was significantly improved after application of Taguchi method. Consequently, Taguchi method was proved to be effective in optimizing the culture conditions of SH production.
