Two anthraquinonic dyes, C.I. Acid Blue 225 and C.I. Acid Violet 109, were used as models to explore the feasibility of using the horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) in the practical decolorization of anthraquinonic dyes in wastewater. The influence of process parameters such as enzyme concentration, hydrogen peroxide concentration, temperature, dye concentration, and pH was examined. The pH and temperature activity profiles were similar for decolorization of both dyes. Under the optimal conditions, 94.7% of C.I. Acid Violet 109 from aqueous solution was decolorized (treatment time 15 min, enzyme concentration 0.15 IU/mL, hydrogen peroxide concentration 0.4 mM, dye concentration 30 mg/L, pH 4, and temperature 24°C) and 89.36% of C.I. Acid Blue 225 (32 min, enzyme concentration 0.15 IU/mL, hydrogen peroxide concentration 0.04 mM, dye concentration 30 mg/L, pH 5, and temperature 24°C). The mechanism of both reactions has been proven to follow the two substrate ping-pong mechanism with substrate inhibition, revealing the formation of a nonproductive or dead-end complex between dye and HRP or between H2O2 and the oxidized form of the enzyme. Both chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon values showed that there was a reduction in toxicity after the enzymatic treatment. This study verifies the viability of use of horseradish peroxidase for the wastewaters treatment of similar anthraquinonic dyes.

Olive oil cake is a by-product from the olive oil processing industry and can be used for the lipase and protease production by Candida utilis in solid state fermentation. Different carbon and nitrogen sources were evaluated, and the results showed that the supplementation of the substrate with maltose and starch as carbon sources and yeast extract as a nitrogen source significantly increased the lipase production. The best results were obtained with maltose, whereas rather low lipase and protease activities were found with glucose and oleic acid. Response surface methodology and a five-level-three-factor central composite rotatable design were used to evaluate the effects of the initial moisture content, inoculum size and fermentation time on both lipase and protease activity levels. A lipase activity value of ≈25 U g(-1) and a protease activity value of 110 U g(-1) were obtained under the optimized fermentation conditions. An alkaline treatment of the substrate appeared to be efficient, leading to increases of 39% and 133% in the lipase and protease production, respectively. The results showed that the olive cake could be a good source for enzyme production by solid state fermentation.

No abstract

In order to confirm the gluten potential for inclusion into functional foods, the synergistic effect of the heat treatment and controlled enzymatic hydrolysis on the functional and the antioxidant properties of alcalase‐assisted wheat gluten hydrolysates (AWGHs) will be discussed. For this purpose, wheat gluten was heat‐treated during 30 min at 75 °C and intensively hydrolyzed with alcalase at degree of hydrolysis (DH) 16.1%, 22.9%, and 30.2%. All the hydrolysates had excellent solubility over a pH range of 2–12. Emulsifying activity and stability were also improved, while proteolysis was deleterious to foam capacity and stability, water‐holding capacity, fat‐binding capacity and did not show improvement at higher DH (22.9% and 30.2%). As well, controlled hydrolysis of heat‐treated gluten resulted in a remarkable improvement in antioxidant activities. The results show that the heat‐treated AWGHs were superior to the untreated hydrolysate in the functional and antioxidant properties tested. Practical applications This report examines existing evidence regarding the wheat gluten proteins (WGP), which is a byproduct from wheat starch processing. It is known that enzymatic hydrolysis is frequently used to improve functional properties of protein hydrolysates and largely dependent on the degree of hydrolysis (DH), which needs to be controlled to elude redundant proteolysis that can deteriorate functionality and cause unfavorable effects. The DH is a substantial factor which affect the hydrolysates' performances and an appropriate selection of protease for WGP hydrolysis will result in maximum biological activity and improved functionalities. Heat treatment is often used to facilitate the proteolysis of proteins. Thus, functional and antioxidant properties of WGP hydrolysates, as a function of heat treatment and the DH were adequately examined in this study and results showed that by combining heat prehydrolysis treatment under controlled conditions, hydrolysates with improved properties can be produced enhancing utilization of WGP in food products.

The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of sonication and high-pressure carbon dioxide processing on proteolytic hydrolysis of egg white proteins and antioxidant activity of the obtained hydrolysates. It appeared that the ultrasound pretreatment resulted in an increase in the degree of hydrolysis of the enzymatic reaction while the high-pressure carbon dioxide processing showed an inhibition effect on the enzymatic hydrolysis of egg white proteins to some extent. The antioxidant activity of the obtained hydrolysates was improved by ultrasound pretreatment of egg white proteins at the pH 8.3. Thus, the combination of ultrasound pretreatment at the pH 8.3 and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis with alcalase at 50°C and pH 8.0 could offer a new approach to the improvement of the functional properties of egg white proteins and their biological activity. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. E!6750

The production of bioactive peptides from egg white proteins (EWPs) and their separation are emerging areas with many new applications. The objective of this study was to compare antioxidant activity of three distinct EWP hydrolysates and their peptide fractions prepared by membrane ultrafiltration using membranes with 30, 10 and 1 kDa molecular weight cutoff. The hydrolysates were obtained by thermal and ultrasound pretreated EWPs hydrolyzed with a bacterial protease, Alcalase. It appeared that the pretreatment significantly affected peptide profiles and antioxidant activity of the hydrolysates measured by ABTS, DPPH and FRAP methods. The hydrolysate prepared using alcalase and ultrasound pretreatment at 40 kHz-15 min has shown to be the most effective in scavenging both DPPH and ABTS radicals (28.10±1.38 and 79.44±2.31%, respectively). It has been noticed that this hydrolysate had a nutritionally more adequate peptide profile than the other hydrolysates with a much lower amount of peptides <1 kDa (11.19±0.53%) and the greatest content of the peptide fraction in the molecular weight (MW) range of 1-10 kDa (28.80±0.07%). This peptide fraction has shown the highest DPPH and ABTS antioxidant activity compared to all other fractions having a potential to be used as a functional food ingredient.

The use of penicillin G acylase (PGA) covalently linked to insoluble carrier is expected to produce major advances in pharmaceutical processing industry and the enzyme stability enhancement is still a significant challenge. The objective of this study was to improve catalytic performance of the covalently immobilized PGA on a potential industrial carrier, macroporous poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) [poly(GMA-co-EGDMA)], by optimizing the copolymerization process and the enzyme attachment procedure. This synthetic copolymer could be a very promising alternative for the development of low-cost, easy-to-prepare, and stable biocatalyst compared to expensive commercially available epoxy carriers such as Eupergit or Sepabeads. The PGA immobilized on poly(GMA-co-EGDMA) in the shape of microbeads obtained by suspension copolymerization appeared to have higher activity yield compared to copolymerization in a cast. Optimal conditions for the immobilization of PGA on poly(GMA-co-EGDMA) microbeads were 1 mg/mL of PGA in 0.75 mol/L phosphate buffer pH 6.0 at 25°C for 24 h, leading to the active biocatalyst with the specific activity of 252.7 U/g dry beads. Chemical amination of the immobilized PGA could contribute to the enhanced stability of the biocatalyst by inducing secondary interactions between the enzyme and the carrier, ensuring multipoint attachment. The best balance between the activity yield (51.5%), enzyme loading (25.6 mg/g), and stability (stabilization factor 22.2) was achieved for the partially modified PGA.

The kinetic parameters for penicillin G hydrolysis in systems with penicillin G acylase from Escherichia coli (free and immobilized on activated chitosan microbeads produced by electrostatic extrusion) were determined. The obtained kinetic results indicated that both systems (free and immobilized) are inhibited by high concentrations of the substrate (penicillin G) as well as by products of the reaction (6-aminopenicillanic acid and phenylacetic acid). The microbeads appeared convenient for penicillin G acylase immobilization reducing negative inhibitory effects. The hydrolysis was also investigated in a packed bed reactor. The derived kinetic model predicted good hydrolysis rates in the reactor while the system with recirculation of the reaction mixture proved to be a potentially favorable solution providing operation at low shear stresses and possibly higher hydrolysis rates than in the packed bed reactor alone.