Neosartorya glabra polygalacturonase produced from fruit peels as inducers has the potential for application in passion fruit and apple juices

Characterization of lemon peel powder and its application as a source of pectin degrading enzyme in clarification of cloudy apple juice

The presence of pectin in the apple peel creates undesirable turbidity and sediment in the final juice and hence clarification is a necessary step for producing consumer-friendly apple juice. This study aimed at evaluating the potential of lemon peel powder as a source of reusable pectinase enzyme in the clarification of apple juice. In this study, optimization of the amount of lemon peel powder addition and incubation time was carried out to produce an apple juice of acceptable clarity. Lemon peel powder as an enzyme source having an activity of 2804.4 U/g could be successfully used up to 5 cycles of pectin hydrolysis. Pectinase enzyme in the lemon peel powder had greater stability at 4 °C with an 11.11% decrease in enzyme activity on 60th day of storage. Treatment with 0.5% w/v lemon peel powder at an incubation time of 90 min was found to be optimum as it produced a clarified apple juice with good sensory acceptability. Lemon peel powder as a naturally immobilized pectinase source was found to be effective in producing clear apple juice.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-021-05270-7.

The ancient koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae) as a modern biotechnological tool

Aspergillus oryzae (A. oryzae) is a filamentous micro-fungus that is used from centuries in fermentation of different foods in many countries all over the world. This valuable fungus is also a rich source of many bioactive secondary metabolites. Moreover, A. oryzae has a prestigious secretory system that allows it to secrete high concentrations of proteins into its culturing medium, which support its use as biotechnological tool in veterinary, food, pharmaceutical, and industrial fields. This review aims to highlight the significance of this valuable fungus in food industry, showing its generosity in production of nutritional and bioactive metabolites that enrich food fermented by it. Also, using A. oryzae as a biotechnological tool in the field of enzymes production was described. Furthermore, domestication, functional genomics, and contributions of A. oryzae in functional production of human pharmaceutical proteins were presented. Finally, future prospects in order to get more benefits from A. oryzae were discussed.