Carotenoids are valuable molecules as they used in manufacturing of food, pharmaceutical, poultry and cosmetics of
which have antioxidant properties and act as vitamin A precursors. Fusarium camptoceras ASU5 (KU215707) was
selected as a promising candidate for β- carotene production. This fungus is characterized by abundant macroconidia in
sporodochia with pointed apical cell and conical to point basal cell. Microconidia and mesoconidia are produced singly
from monophalidic and polyphialidic conidiogenous cells. The physic-chemical characteristics of the β- carotene basal
medium were screened by applying one factor. The initial screening revealed two components: molasses and (NH4)2PO4
influencing yields of β-carotene. The optimal factors were then combined for further studies through the central
composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize the significant values and to study the
mutual interactions between these factors. The analysis revealed that optimal medium concentrations for maximum
production of β- carotene (508.3 mg/L) were (g/L): Molasses 50; (NH4)2PO4 1.2; KH2PO4 2.5; L- asparagine 0.1 and
MgSO4.7H2O 0.1. Analysis of variance results showed that the model was significant and an R2
value of 98.2%
demonstrated that the experimental results were fitted well with predicted values.