Production of ferulic acid. a precursor of vanillin from cereal bran is an attractive option due to the high price and demand for natural vanillin in the international arena and feruloyl esterase has been identified as the key enzyme involved. The methyl ester of ferulic acid was used as substrate for assaying the enzyme activity. Among the different strains of fungi screened on pretreated wheat bran as growth substrate, the maximum specific activity for feruloyl esterase enzyme was exhibited by the isolated strain JCS-3 on the eighth day (10.80 IU/mg protein). Different cereal brans as growth substrates were employed as carbon source for inducing the production of feruloyl esterase. Maize bran was found to support the production of feruloyl esterase enzyme having the maximum specific activity (36.71 IU/mg protein) on the eighth day closely followed by rice bran with a specific activity value of 34.88 IU/mg protein on the fourth day itself. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.