Butyric acid is widely used in chemical, food, pharmaceutical industries, in pure form to enhance butter-like notes in food flavors or in the form of esters, as aromatic compounds for the production of perfumes, in dairy products, in the manufacture of cellulose acetate butyrate plastics which is used for textile fiber production, in the treatment of hemoglobinopathies, cancer, and gastrointestinal diseases It is produced in the fermentation by microbial flora living in the large intestine of humans and other monogastric animals. The butyric acid production at industry scale is dominated by chemical synthesis as the starting materials derived from crude oil is currently more attractive due to its low production cost and large scale supply. With the decreasing supply of world crude oil, the increasing supply of food industry by-products which can be used for butyric acid production and the increasing consumer demand for organic natural products in food additives, pharmaceutical products, and preservatives, the production of butyric acid through microbial fermentation has generated again a favorable business.
The production of butyric acid was carried out by anaerobic solid state fermentation by C. tyrobutyricum culturing on wheat bran, rice polishing, molasses and corn steep liquor was used as additives.Before its production the proximate analysis of wheat bran, rice polishings, and molasses was carried out to know their inherent nutritional potential. The fermented organism Clostridium tyrobutyricum was isolated from rumen liquor of fistulated buffalo bull .Growth media employed to culture C. tyrobutyricum for the production of butyric acid have been developed. The optimizing conditions of growth medium such ionic concentration of growth medium, source of nitrogen ,substrate to water ratio ,fermentation period and carbon-nitrogen ratio in the medium, for maximum butyric acid production was determined on micro scale at 37°C .Detection and estimation of butyric acid carried out by organic analysis method. This method is based on the catalytic oxidation of butyric acid into diacetic acid, which gives red coloration with sodium nitroprusside. The optimum conditions for the production of butyric acid thus determined on micro scale was applied on higher scale in 7 litre capacity frementer.