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The problem of environmental pollution day by day becomes more worrisome, primarily due to the large amounts of wastewater contaminated with various harmful organic compounds, discharged into the environment untreated or partially clean. Feasibility of use of horseradish peroxidase (Amoracia rusticana) in the synthetic dyes decolorization was approved by many researchers. Among a number of supports used for the immobilization, it was found that natural clay, kaolin has excellent features which are a precondition for obtaining biocatalysts with the excellent performances. For this reason, a horseradish peroxidase was immobilized onto kaolin using glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent. Obtained biocatalyst was applied in the decolorization of anthraquinone dye C. I. Acid Violet 109. Under determined optimal conditions (pH 4.0, hydrogen peroxide concentration 0.6 mM, dye concentration 30 mg L-1, temperature 24ºC) around 76 % of dye decolorization was achieved. Reusability study showed that resulting biocatalyst was possible to apply four times in the desired reaction with relatively high decolorization percentage. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III-46010 i br. 172013]

The production of bioactive peptides from egg white proteins (EWPs) and their separation are emerging areas with many new applications. The objective of this study was to compare antioxidant activity of three distinct EWP hydrolysates and their peptide fractions prepared by membrane ultrafiltration using membranes with 30, 10 and 1 kDa molecular weight cut-off. The hydrolysates were obtained by thermal and ultrasound pretreated EWPs hydrolyzed with a bacterial protease, Alcalase. It appeared that the pretreatment significantly affected peptide profiles and antioxidant activity of the hydrolysates measured by ABTS, DPPH and FRAP methods. The hydrolysate prepared using Alcalase and ultrasound pretreatment at 40 kHz - 15 min has shown to be the most effective in scavenging both DPPH and ABTS radicals (28.10±1.38 and 79.44±2.31%, respectively). It has been noticed that this hydrolysate had a nutritionally more adequate peptide profile than the other hydrolysates with a much lower amount of peptides

The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of sonication and high-pressure carbon dioxide processing on proteolytic hydrolysis of egg white proteins and antioxidant activity of the obtained hydrolysates. It appeared that the ultrasound pretreatment resulted in an increase in the degree of hydrolysis of the enzymatic reaction while the high-pressure carbon dioxide processing showed an inhibition effect on the enzymatic hydrolysis of egg white proteins to some extent. The antioxidant activity of the obtained hydrolysates was improved by ultrasound pretreatment of egg white proteins at the pH 8.3. Thus, the combination of ultrasound pretreatment at the pH 8.3 and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis with alcalase at 50°C and pH 8.0 could offer a new approach to the improvement of the functional properties of egg white proteins and their biological activity. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. E!6750]

A selection of best combination of adequate immobilization support and efficient immobilization method is still a key requirement for successful application of immobilized enzymes on an industrial level. Eupergit ® supports exhibit good mechanical and chemical properties and allow establishment of satisfactory hydrodynamic regime in enzyme reactors. This is advantageous for their wide application in enzyme immobilization after finding the most favorable immobilization method. Methods for enzyme immobilization that have been previously reported as efficient considering the obtained activity of immobilized enzyme are presented: direct binding to polymers via their epoxy groups, binding to polymers via a spacer made from ethylene diamine/glutaraldehyde, and coupling the periodate-oxidized sugar moieties of the enzymes to the polymer beads. The modification of the conventionally immobilized enzyme with ethylenediamine via the carbodiimide route seems to be a powerful tool to improve its stability and catalytic activity.

Two anthraquinonic dyes, C.I. Acid Blue 225 and C.I. Acid Violet 109, were used as models to explore the feasibility of using the horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) in the practical decolorization of anthraquinonic dyes in wastewater. The influence of process parameters such as enzyme concentration, hydrogen peroxide concentration, temperature, dye concentration, and pH was examined. The pH and temperature activity profiles were similar for decolorization of both dyes. Under the optimal conditions, 94.7% of C.I. Acid Violet 109 from aqueous solution was decolorized (treatment time 15 min, enzyme concentration 0.15 IU/mL, hydrogen peroxide concentration 0.4 mM, dye concentration 30 mg/L, pH 4, and temperature 24°C) and 89.36% of C.I. Acid Blue 225 (32 min, enzyme concentration 0.15 IU/mL, hydrogen peroxide concentration 0.04 mM, dye concentration 30 mg/L, pH 5, and temperature 24°C). The mechanism of both reactions has been proven to follow the two substrate ping-pong mechanism with substrate inhibition, revealing the formation of a nonproductive or dead-end complex between dye and HRP or between H2O2 and the oxidized form of the enzyme. Both chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon values showed that there was a reduction in toxicity after the enzymatic treatment. This study verifies the viability of use of horseradish peroxidase for the wastewaters treatment of similar anthraquinonic dyes.