A Purified Alkaline and Detergent-Tolerant Lipase from Aspergillus fumigatus with Potential Application in Removal of Mustard Oil Stains from Cotton Fabric

In the present study, the lipase from Aspergillus fumigatus was purified which was found to be stable to commercial detergents and oxidising agents. A purification fold of 6.96 and yield of 11.03% were achieved when the enzyme was purified using Octyl Sepharose column chromatography. In presence of various oxidizing agents, the highest activity of lipase was 15.56 U/mg with hydrogen peroxide. Among various surfactants used, the maximum activity exhibited by lipase was with Tween 80. While studying the effect of various detergents, the highest activity of 9.3 U/mg was achieved with "Vanish" detergent. Wash performance was studied with various detergents out of which "Vanish" showed highest oil removal of 79%. Lipase from Aspergillus fumigatus possessed better stability with various surfactants and oxidizing agents. The results of this study have shown that the lipase from Aspergillus fumigatus along with detergent "Vanish" (0.7%) under optimized conditions (5 μg/ml lipase, 40°C wash temperature and 40 min wash duration) improved oil removal from cotton fabric stained with mustard oil by 84%.