Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Immobilization of enzymes has attracted a great deal of attention because of its ability to make high-cost enzymes reusable and stable. The biomaterial Pullulan is a natural water-soluble exo-polysaccharide and a slow digesting macromolecule. It is declared as a low calorie food additive providing bulk and texture, produced from starch by fermentation. It is basically used as a glazing agent, a film-forming agent, a thickener or as a carrier in the production of capsules for dietary supplements as a substitute for gelatin, coatings for coated tablets containing dietary supplements, for production of edible flavoured films used as breath fresheners and in the production of jams, jellies, confectionery and some meat and fruit products. In our study we screened Aureobasidium pullulans, a Pullulan producing microorganism from leaves of mango (Mangifera indica), Asoka (saraca indica),Ficus sp.,Hibiscus, Nerium sp.,Tamarindus indica leaves from a village named Iruvaram in chittoor district . The produced pullulan was reacted to a bifunctional compound capable of forming ether linkages to give a three-dimensional reticulated hydrophilic gel for the entrapment of the Pectinase enzyme which is highly needed for applications in fruit, textile and paper industries and also in waste water treatment. This enzyme (Pectinase) was immobilized on diethyl amino ethylated pullulan gel by the ionic adsorption method. The amount of enzyme immobilized was estimated by the measurement of the ultraviolet absorption intensity at 280 nm.

Biography

Shrestha Sinha Ray is receiving her B.Tech degree in Biotechnology from VIT University and is presently in her final year. Under the guidance of Dr Suneetha Vuppu, she has worked on the ?Screening and Identification of Degradable products by Pectin-Lyse producing Actinomycetes from Katpadi and Chittoor Fruit Industrial waste enriched Soil Samples? which is in press in the Asian Journal of Biotechnology, Microbiology and Environmental Sciences (AJBMES).