SELEÇÃO DE ESPÉCIES DO GÊNERO Penicillium PRODUTORAS DE LIPASE LIGADA AO MICÉLIO PARA APLICAÇÃO EM HIDRÓLISE DE ÓLEOS VEGETAIS

Abstract

Ten species of Penicillium genus isolated from different habitats were evaluated as mycelium bound lipase producers to be used in the hydrolysis of vegetable oils. Using olive oil as an inducer three species (P. italicum AT4421, P. janthinellum CCT3162 and P. purpurogenum AT2008) were able to produce lipases having high mycelium bound activities (>150 U g-1) and were further characterized in relation to their biochemical and kinetic properties and specificity using vegetable oils having majority fatty acids composition in C12:0 (coconut); C16:0 (palm); C18:1 (canola) and C18:1 (soybean). All the three lipases could enrich the medium with fatty acids according to their respective selectivity and the reaction hydrolysis was found to enhance at least three folds under ultrasonic irradiations. For P. purpurogenum lipase the highest hydrolysis degree (66.8 ± 0.2%) was attained with coconut oil. Both P. italicum and P. janthinellum lipases showed high selectivity for canola oil, resulting in hydrolysis degrees of 79.9 ± 0.5% and 63.5 ± 0.6%, respectively. Analysis of the hydrolysates confirmed that the majority of the fatty acids released by P. italicum and P. janthinellum lipases was composed by oleic acid, and P. purpurogenum lipase the hydrolysate contained approximately 50% of lauric acid.

Keywords

• lipases
• Penicillium
• whole-cells
• hydrolysis
• vegetable oils