Recovery of inulinase using BDBAC reversed micelles

Inulinase from Candida kefyr was extracted into a reversed micelle phase of the cationic surfactant BDBAC in organic solvents (isooctane/hexanol). Factors affecting the efficiency of the reversed micellar forward-extraction including pH, concentration and type of salts, solvent/co-solvent volume ratio, surfactant concentration, buffer concentration and temperature were investigated. A high micelle size (omega(0) similar to-120 or R-M similar to 18 nm) was necessary to achieve almost complete inulinase solubilization in the micellar phase, which could be generated by raising the temperature to 37 degrees C. Some parameters for optimization of the back-extraction to a fresh aqueous phase were also investigated. Under optimum conditions of forward and backward-extraction, about 90% of the total enzyme was recovered and the specific activity of the inulinase increased some 3-fold. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.