Microencapsulation of Lipase and Savinase Enzymes by Spray Drying Using Arabic Gum as Wall Material

Abstract

Enzymes have been used in detergents over the years. They can improve the deter-gent’s efficiency due to their activities against hard stains. Nevertheless, enzymes cannot maintain their properties indefinitely, since they are exposed to stress factors, like temperature, pH, mechanical processes and others. Consequently, enzymes lose their structure and they are not functional. For this reason, microencapsulating these proteins is a feasible solution to improve their use in industrial processes and com-mercial products. Spray drying technology has been selected because a lot of scientific literature proved its useful application in a variety of industries. In particular, savinase and lipase are the two encapsulated enzymes in this work. Savinase attacks proteins and lipase removes fats, so they are suitable enzymes for detergent industry. Arabic gum has been used as wall material. Morphology, size and activity of the obtained microcapsules have been analyzed in order to find the best conditions to produce them. In conclusion, useful microcapsules of lipase and savinase can be obtained with the mentioned technology.