Lipase Activity in Fermented Oil Seeds of Africa Locust Bean, (Parkia Biglobosa), Castor Seeds (Ricinu Communis) and African Oil Bean (Pentaclethra Macrophylla).

Abstract

The activity of lipase in fermented Africa locust bean, Castor seed, and Africa oil bean was determined. The peak lipase activity for fermented Africa locust bean, Castor seed, and African oil bean were 13.3x10-3 micro mol/sec, 7.2x10-3 micro mol/sec and 10.6x10-3 micro mol/sec at day 5, 4 and 4 respectively. The optimum temperature and pH were 30 degrees C and 7.0 respectively for all the fermented seeds above. Increasing NaCl concentration decreases the activity of Lipase indicating that NaCl is an inhibitor of lipase. The effect of substrate concentration on lipase activity in the fermenting oil seeds shows the normal Michaelis-Menten curve. The Km for African locust bean is 0.065664 mM, Castor seed is 0.067625 mM, and African oil bean is 0.075848 mM. While the Vmax are: 15.229x10-3 micro mol/sec, 14.787x10-3 micro mol/sec and 13.184x10-3 micro mol/sec respectively. The findings of this work indicates that fermented African locust bean, Castor seed and Africa oil bean could be a sou ce of lipase for industrial application.