Chitin and its derivative as supports for immobilization of enzymes

Abstract

The ideal enzyme support should show high affinity to proteins, availability of reactive groups for dircct reactions with proteins or for chemical modifications, easiness of preparing in different physical forms, nontoxicity and physiological compatability if required (food industry, biomedicine), as well as low cost. Chitin and its derivatives fullfil most of these requirements. The paper reviews enzymes immobilized on chitin and its derivatives along with techniques applied for their immobilization.

Effects of organic solvents on the activity of free and immobilised laccase from Rhus vernicifera

“…Hydrophobicity (log P) organic solvent are pre-equilibrated with water at lower temperature [55]. The solvents were therefore pre-saturated with water, and the resulting rate constants for I-RL-catalysed oxidation of 2,6-dimethoxylphenol in water-organic solvent systems were a relative measure of the reaction rates among the different solvent systems ( Table 2).…”

Present and Future Role of Chitin and Chitosan in Food

“…Gels are also formed when chitosan in acidic solutions is treated with aliphatic and aryl aldehydes producing Schiff bases. [37,38] Chitosan dissolved in acidic solutions is a polycation, therefore it reacts with polyanions forming polyelectrolyte complexes. As presented above, chitosan as a possible enzyme support offers an unusual combination of properties, which include: high affinity to proteins, numerous original reactive groups, a broad range of possible chemical modifications, and finally a great variety of configurations.…”

Immobilization and catalytic properties of lipase on chitosan for hydrolysis and esterification reactions

“…In addition, this support offers several advantages as an enzyme immobilization carrier, among which the following stand out: versatility of available physical forms (flakes, porous beads, gel, fiber and membrane); low biodegradability; low cost; ease of handling; high affinity for proteins and, above all, nontoxicity (Felse and Panda, 1999). Moreover, good results were obtained in a number of previous studies in which chitosan was used to immobilize lipase (Itoyama et al, 1994;Carneiro da Cunha et al, 1999) and other hydrolases such as amyloglucosidase, papain, β-glycosidase and α-L arabinofuranosidase (Krajewska, 1991;Felse and Panda, 1999). To pursue our interest in the immobilization and subsequent use of lipases Soares et al, 1999), we studied the feasibility of using chitosan as matrix for immobilizing microbial lipases.…”

“…Of these alternatives, the derivative of chitin, chitosan, appears to be the most attractive since chitin is the second the most abundant biopolymer in nature next to cellulose (Krajewska, 1991). In addition, this support offers several advantages as an enzyme immobilization carrier, among which the following stand out: versatility of available physical forms (flakes, porous beads, gel, fiber and membrane); low biodegradability; low cost; ease of handling; high affinity for proteins and, above all, nontoxicity (Felse and Panda, 1999).…”

“…The high cost of popular supports (silica-based carriers and synthetic polymers) causes many to search for a cheaper substitute such as CaCO 3 (Rosu et al, 1998), rice husk and rice straw (Tantrakulsiri et al, 1997) or chitin and chitosan (Krajewska, 1991;Felse and Panda, 1999). Of these alternatives, the derivative of chitin, chitosan, appears to be the most attractive since chitin is the second the most abundant biopolymer in nature next to cellulose (Krajewska, 1991).…”