AbstractA strain isolated locally and identified as Rhizopus oryzae (RO, IIT KGP) was found to synthesise an extracellular enzyme, tanin acyl hydrolase, showing its degradability of tannic acid to gallic acid. For maximizing the enzyme secretion in the fermented broth, the influencing parameters were optimized in shake flask culture. Experiments showed that modified Czapek dox medium with 2% tannic acid, 1% glucose, 0.05% sodium nitrate incubated for 4 days with 2 days old inoculum was the optimum for the synthesis of tannase by Rhizopus oryzae (RO, IIT KGP). Maximum enzyme activity was found to be 6.12U/ml.