Current study deals with the comparative study related to immobilization of maltase using synthetic (polyacrylamide) and non-synthetic (calcium alginate, agar-agar and agarose) polymers via entrapment technique. Polyacrylamide beads were formed by cross-linking of monomers, agar-agar and agarose through solidification while alginate beads were prepared by simple gelation. Results showed that the efficiency of enzyme significantly improved after immobilization and among all tested supports agar-agar was found to be the most promising and biocompatible for maltase in terms of immobilization yield (82.77%). The catalytic behavior of maltase was slightly shifted in terms of reaction time (free enzyme, agarose and polyacrylamide: 5.0 min; agar-agar and alginate: 10.0 min), pH (free enzyme, alginate and polyacrylamide: 6.5; agar-agar, agarose: 7.0) and temperature (free enzyme: 45 °C; alginate: 50 °C; polyacrylamide: 55 °C; agarose: 60 °C; agar-agar: 65 °C). Stability profile of immobilized maltase also revealed that all the supports utilized have significantly enhanced the activity of maltase at higher temperatures then its free counterpart. However, recycling data showed that agar-agar entrapped maltase retained 20.0% of its initial activity even after 10 cycles followed by agarose (10.0%) while polyacrylamide and alginate showed no activity after 8 and 6 cycles respectively.
Keywords: Agar-agar; Entrapment; Immobilization; Reusability; Thermal stability.
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