A PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY AND IMMOBILIZATION OF STARCH PHOSPHORYLASEFROM STARCH-BASED INDUSTRIAL WASTE-WATER

A process for recovery of starch phosphorylase, an important enzyme in the production of glucose 1-phosphate from the wastewater of potato-s tarch factories, has been developed. Of the 680 units of enzyme presen t in 1.2 litres of wastewater, 383 units were recovered with a 2.72-fo ld enrichment in specific activity. Two forms, starch phosphorylase I and II, obtained by ion-exchange chromatography, were purified to a sp ecific activity of 0.76 and 0.82 unit/mg of protein respectively which remained essentially unchanged even after immobilization on ground eg gshell. However, the thermal stability of both the immobilized enzymes was dramatically increased. The eggshell-bound enzymes were packed in a water-jacketed glass column and fed with a continuous supply of sol uble starch and phosphate buffer to yield glucose 1-phosphate, a cytos tatic compound used in the therapy of cardiopathy, which was isolated by DEAE-cellulose ion-exchange chromatography and ethanol precipitatio n to 96% purity.