Scientific African (Sep 2023)
The potential of in-house pectinolytic enzymes for industrial application
Abstract
Pectinases are one of the essential groups of enzymes in the field of biotechnology and have applications in various industries including food, textile, paper industries, and waste management. Pectinases, like other industrial enzymes, are usually expensive. This research aimed at producing in-house pectinase from waste fruits, by an inductive mechanism. The study specifically optimized the production of in-house pectinases from mango and pawpaw peels used as substrates and also demonstrated the hydrolytic potential of the substrate-based in-house pectinase enzymes through viscosity analysis. The mango and pawpaw peels obtained from Blue Skies Co. Ltd. were oven-dried and milled to sieve particle sizes depending on the mode of the fermentation process. Measured amounts of the substrates were put into 50 ml Falcon tubes and subjected to both solid-state and submerged fermentation processes. The substrates were inoculated with one milliliter of Aspergillus niger isolate suspension and incubated at 30 °C for 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 days under both fermentation processes. The crude enzyme extracts (in-house pectinolytic enzymes) obtained from the mango and pawpaw peels of both fermentation processes were used as enzyme sources for the hydrolysis of 1% w/v pectin solution prepared in phosphate buffer, pH 6.8 at 40 °C in viscosity analysis. The viscosities of the various treatments were recorded at different time intervals of 10, 20, and 30 min. Based on the viscosity analysis, it was observed that pectinolytic enzymes from pawpaw peels showed higher pectinolytic potential relative to the mango counterpart for both fermentation processes. However, there were consistent optima at day 4 for the mango peels and day 6 for the pawpaw peels using the submerged fermentation process. Also, there was a linear correlation between the pectinolytic activity and incubation period. The results obtained from this study show a higher potential to produce pectinases from agro-wastes such as mango and pawpaw peels for industrial purposes using an appropriate fermentation process.
