Lipases produced by a newly isolated Sporidiobolus pararoseus strain have potential catalytic ability for esterification reactions. After production, the enzymatic extracts (conventional crude and precipitated, 'CC' and 'CP', and industrial crude and precipitated, 'IC' e 'IP') were partially characterized. The enzymes presented, in general, higher specificity for short chain alcohols and fatty acids. The precipitated extract showed a good thermal stability, higher than that for crude enzymatic extracts. The 'CC' and 'CP' enzymes presented high activities after exposure to pH 6.5 and 40 ºC. On the other hand, the 'IC' and 'IP' extracts kept their activities in a wide range of pH memory but presented preference for higher reaction temperatures. Preliminary studies of application of the crude lipase extract in the enzymatic production of geranyl propionate using geraniol and propionic acid as substrates in solvent-free system led to a reaction conversion of 42 ± 1.5%.

A adulteração do produto Ilex paraguariensis com outras espécies de Ilex é um dos principais problemas dos produtores de erva-mate. Neste trabalho, três espécies de Ilex foram avaliadas quanto à sua composição volátil por microextração em fase sólida acoplada à cromatografia gasosa e detector de espectro de massas (HS-SPME/GC-MS). As espécies adulterantes I. dumnosa e I. theizans Mart. ex Reissek apresentaram um perfil diferente de compostos orgânicos voláteis, quando comparadas com a I. paraguariensis. Os aldeídos metil-butanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal e nonanal foram detectados apenas nas espécies adulterantes. Esse resultado sugere que esses compostos químicos são marcadores potenciais para a identificação de adulteração e análise da qualidade dos produtos à base de Ilex paraguariensis.

The adulteration of the product Ilex paraguariensis with other Ilex species is a mAjor problem for maté tea producers. In this work, three species of Ilex were evaluated for their volatile composition by headspace solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrum detector (HS-SPME/GC-MS). The adulterating species I. dumnosa and I. theizans Mart. ex Reissek presented a different profile of volatile organic compounds when compared to I. paraguariensis. Aldehydes methyl-butanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal and nonanal were detected only in the adulterating species. This result suggests that such compounds are potential chemical markers for identification of adulteration and quality analysis of products based on Ilex paraguariensis.

This work studied the pretreatment of sugarcane molasses (CM) and corn steep liquor (CS) for the production of carotenoids by Sporidiobolus salmonicolor (CBS 2636). The acid pretreatment removed less micronutrients than that with activated carbon and led to high removals of Cu and Mn. Reduction in optical density of the prepared medium and removal of glucose from it were 22% and 7% for CM and 95% and 38% for CS, respectively. Total carotenoids obtained with substrates pretreated with acids (541 mg/L) were higher than the results obtained when the medium was treated with activated carbon (208 mg/L).