β Galactosidases and their potential applications: a review

Abstract

β Galactosidases have been obtained from microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria and yeasts; plants, animals cells, and from recombinant sources. The enzyme has two main applications; the removal of lactose from milk products for lactose intolerant people and the production of galactosylated products. In order to increase their stability, reusability, and use in continuous reactors, these enzymes have been immobilized on both organic and inorganic support via adsorption, covalent attachment, chemical aggregation, microencapsulation, and entrapment. Free and immobilized preparations of β galactosidases have been exploited in various applications such as industrial, biotechnological, medical, analytical, and in different other applications. β galactosidase is widely used in food industry to improve sweetness, solubility, flavor, and digestibility of dairy products. Immobilized β galactosidases are employed for the continuous hydrolysis of lactose from whey and milk in a number of reactors such as hollow fiber reactors, tapered column reactors, packed bed reactors, fluidized bed reactors etc.

Keywords::

• Immobilization
• stabilization
• β galactosidase
• application
• lactose

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the Council of Science & Technology, Uttar Pradesh Lucnow, India for funding a project entitled “Immobilization of plant and fungal β galactosidases by using bioaffinity supports: Its applications in the hydrolysis of lactose in whey and milk.”

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.