The effect of immobilization on the hydrolytic/interesterification activity of lipase from Rhizopus niveus

Lipase from Rhizopus niveus was immobilized by physical adsorption on Celite 545 and glass beads. The results showed that the highest immobilization efficiency and specific hydrolytic activity of 96% and 9.2 meq/mg protein/min, respectively, were obtained with Celite as the carrier. However, the specific hydrolytic activity of lipase adsorbed on glass beads by acetone precipitation was similar to that obtained by the Celite carrier, although the protein loading capacity was relatively low. The results showed that lipase immobilized on glass beads exhibited similar activity profiles with respect to reaction time, different enzyme concentrations, and water content, using trimyristin and tripalmitin as substrates, to those obtained with the free enzyme. In contrast, the immobilized lipase on Celite exhibited a considerably lower hydrolytic activity. However, the results also showed that the lipase activities of the free enzyme and the immobilized Celite enzyme were similar when the more hydrophilic triolein was used as the substrate. The interesterification of a mixture of tripalmitin and trimyristin or triolein was carried out using both the free and immobilized enzymes. The results indicated that the hydrolytic activity of lipase was similar in both cases for the first 24 h, after which it decreased dramatically. These findings suggest that at this late stage an equilibrium between the hydrolytic and interesterification reactions was reached.