Bacillus subtilis NRC 33a was able to produce both inducible and constitutive extracellular levansucrase, respectively, using sucrose and glucose as carbon source. The optimal production of the levansucrase was at 30 degrees C. The effect of different nitrogen sources showed that baker's yeast with 2% concentration gave the highest levansucrase activity. Addition of 0.15 g/L MgSO(4) was the most favorable for levansucrase production. The enzymic synthesis of levan was studied using 60% acetone fraction. The results indicated that high enzyme concentrations produced increasing amounts of levan, and hence conversion of fructose to levan reached 84% using 1,000 microg/ml enzyme protein. Sucrose concentration was the most effective factor controlling the molecular weight of the synthesized levan. The conversion of fructose to levan was maximal at 30 degrees C. The time of reaction clearly affected the conversion of fructose to levan, which reached its maximum productivity at 18 hours (92%). Identification of levan indicated that fructose was the building unit of levan.