10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 3 Issue 3 2012 (July - September) Cardiovascular diseases, the main cause of death in the society imply a strong correlation between enhanced blood cholesterol levels. 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl–coenzyme A (HMG–CoA) reductase catalyzes the conversion of HMG–CoA to mevalonic acid, plays a significant role in cholesterol synthesis. Fungi are the important sources for the production of lovastatin, a rate limiting step of cholesterol biosynthesis. In this study, endophytic fungal strain lessThan i greaterThan Aspergillus niger lessThan /i greaterThan was tested for its ability to produce lovastatin by solid-state fermentation (SSF). Various substrates were used to evaluate the ability of lessThan i greaterThan A. niger lessThan /i greaterThan to produce lovastatin. The organism produced high levels (1.5 mg/g of dry substrate) of lovastatin under optimized culture conditions on 8 lessThan sup greaterThan th lessThan /sup greaterThan day of incubation at an optimum pH 6.5, temperature 28 °C, moisture content 65%, particle size of 0.6 to 0.4 mm and bed depth 3 cm by SSF. The yields obtained in the present study would have to be further increased for its industrial importance but it has proved the feasibility of solid state fermentation as a promising technique in exploiting cheaply available agro-residual wastes as substrates for the large-scale production of microbial metabolites of biotechnological importance ultimately leading to an effective solid waste management. Raghunath R, Radhakrishna A , Manikandan N , Nathiya K And Palaniswamy M Lovastatin, SSF, Aspergillus niger, optimisation. 562-570