In the present work, four strains were screened for schizophyllan production, of which Schizophyllum commune NRCM was selected for further work. The fermentation was carried out for 168 h at 28 +/- 2C on an orbital shaker at 180 rpm. In the first step, one factor-at-a-time method was used to investigate the effect of media constituents such as carbon and nitrogen sources on schizophyllan production. Subsequently in the second step, concentration of the medium components was optimized using Response Surface Method (RSM). The yield increased from 3.25 +/- 0.72 g/l in the unoptimized media to 8.03 +/- 1.12 g/l in the medium optimized by RSM. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.