In the studies of the effects of various levels of NaCl plus addition of amino acids on HEMF production by Candida etchellsii,we used the 2-step process with initial 200 g/L NaCl and subsequently 220 g/L NaCl after 40 h of fermentation with the addition of alanine,arginine and glycine(both 1.67 g/L) in the medium.The shake flask fermentation results indicated that 110.74 mg/L of HEMF was produced by the C.etchellsii yeast.Results from the 7 L fermentor experiments showed that HEMF production reached 121.51 mg/L,a 21.2-fold increase above the control which contained 200 g/L sodium chloride and no amino acid.The 2-step,2-level NaCl with various amino acid additives process in the fermentation medium significantly improved the production of HEMF by the C.etchellsii yeast.