Grosová Z., Rosenberg M., Rebroš M. (2008): Perspectives and applications of immobilised β-galactosidase in food industry -a review. Czech J. Food Sci., 26: 1-14.β-Galactosidase is an important industrial enzyme in the hydrolysis of milk and whey lactose. The enzymatic hydrolysis of lactose allows to avoid health and environmental problems posed by this disaccharide. In addition, this enzyme catalyses the formation of galacto-oligosaccharides, which are prebiotic additives for the so-called "healthy foods". β-Galactosidase is one of the relatively few enzymes that have been used in large-scale processes in both free and immobilised forms. This article presents a review of recent trends in immobilisation of β-galactosidase and their application in food industry.

Waste glycerol was converted to secondary amines in a one pot reaction, using Clostridium butyricum and catalytic hydrogen transfer-mediated amination.

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Quercetin is a flavonoid largely employed as a phytochemical remedy and a food or dietary supplement. We present here a novel biocatalytic methodology for the preparation of quercetin from plant-derived rutin, with both substrate and product being in mostly an undissolved state during biotransformation. This “solid-state” enzymatic conversion uses a crude enzyme preparation of recombinant rutinosidase from Aspergillus niger yielding quercetin, which precipitates from virtually insoluble rutin. The process is easily scalable and exhibits an extremely high space-time yield. The procedure has been shown to be robust and was successfully tested with rutin concentrations of up to 300 g/L (ca 0.5 M) at various scales. Using this procedure, pure quercetin is easily obtained by mere filtration of the reaction mixture, followed by washing and drying of the filter cake. Neither co-solvents nor toxic chemicals are used, thus the process can be considered environmentally friendly and the product of “bio-quality.” Moreover, rare disaccharide rutinose is obtained from the filtrate at a preparatory scale as a valuable side product. These results demonstrate for the first time the efficiency of the “Solid-State-Catalysis” concept, which is applicable virtually for any biotransformation involving substrates and products of low water solubility.