Sago starch was hydrolyzed using either chemical agents, or enzymes at various 
pH and concentrations. Hydrolysis using 5000 AUN/ml (0.5%, w/v) glucoamylase 
exhibited the highest itaconic acid yield up to 0.36 g/g sago starch, whereas 
hydrolysis using nitric acid at pH 2.0 yielded 0.35 g/g sago starch. The medium 
was optimized and the composition was (g/l) 140 sago starch, 1.8 corn steep 
liquor, 1.2 MgSO(4).7H(2)O and 2.9 NH(4)NO(3). When the optimal conditions of 
hydrolysis and medium composition were applied to itaconic acid production in a 
3-l jar fermentor, the itaconic acid production was 48.2 g/l with a yield of 
0.34 g/g sago starch. This was filtered from the cultured broth and 37.1g of 
itaconic acid was recovered with a purity of 97.2%. This result showed that sago 
starch could be converted to a value-added product with only a simple 
pretreatment.