Abstract Cagaita (Eugenia dysenterica DC) is a Brazilian cerrado fruit with great economic potential. It can be consumed in natura or as processed products like juices and pulps. The search for products with lower nutritional and sensorial changes led to the development of non-thermal techniques, where membrane processes stand out. The use of immobilized pectinolytic enzymes to reduce juices and pulps turbidity and viscosity has several advantages over the free enzymes use, such as the enzyme reduction costs and their reuse. The objective was the cagaita pulp hydrolysis optimization step using encapsulated commercial pectinase, the evaluation of its reuse in several cycles and its application in the microfiltration process. The activity of free commercial enzymes and encapsulated in calcium alginate in the pulp was evaluated, mainly the viscosity and turbidity reduction. The optimum conditions for hydrolysis with encapsulated enzymes were: temperature (30 °C), without stirring and enzymatic concentration (570 μL/L), considering the clarity increment and viscosity reduction. After 8 cycles, the encapsulated enzymes maintained 30% of its activity in reducing viscosity, resulting in the reuse possibility. The mean flow rate during the microfiltration (MF) of the hydrolyzed cagaita pulp with encapsulated enzymes was 13.4% higher than the non hydrolyzed pulp, indicating that enzymatic treatment was also efficient in process time reduction. Enzymes encapsulated can be applied by the juices and fruit pulps industries as a pre-process step for MF increasing the permeate flows, reducing operational and input costs.

Abstract Cagaita (Eugenia dysenterica DC) is a Brazilian cerrado fruit with great economic potential and can be consumed in natura or as processed products like juices and pulps. The search for products with lower nutritional and sensorial changes led to the non-thermal techniques development where membrane processes stand out. The use of immobilized pectinolytic enzymes to reduce juices and pulps turbidity and viscosity has advantages over free enzymes such as enzyme reduction costs and reuse. The objective was the hydrolysis optimization of cagaita pulp with encapsulated pectinase, evaluation of reuse in cycles and application in microfiltration (MF). The free commercial enzymes and encapsulated activity in calcium alginate in pulp was evaluated, viscosity and turbidity reduction. The optimum hydrolysis with encapsulated enzymes conditions were temperature (30 °C), without stirring, enzymatic concentration (570 μL/L), considering clarity increment and viscosity reduction. After 8 cycles, encapsulated enzymes maintained 30% of its activity in reducing viscosity and reuse possibility. Microfiltration flow rate of hydrolyzed pulp with encapsulated enzymes was 13.4% higher than the nonhydrolyzed, indicating that enzymatic hydrolysis was efficient in time reduction. Encapsulated enzymes can be applied in juices and pulps as a pre-process for increasing the permeate flows, reducing operational and input costs.

Abstract Despite the high catalytic properties of pectinases, the utilization of free enzymes always presents some hindrances such as low stability, a difficulty for product recovery and the impossibility of continuous use. Enzyme encapsulation is one of the methods used to overcome these limitations; however, some kind of effect is expected to occur on its catalytic activity. The objective of this work was to study the parameters involved in the process of encapsulation of a commercial pectinase product in calcium alginate and the effect of this encapsulation on its catalytic activity. The effect of the parameters of sodium alginate, calcium chloride, enzyme concentration and reaction time on enzymatic activity and encapsulation yield were also evaluated. The effect of pH and temperature on the activity of the free and encapsulated enzyme was studied. The highest yield of immobilization was obtained with a concentration of enzyme solution of 4%. Free and encapsulated enzymes showed similar behavior regarding the catalytic activity. The encapsulated enzyme had a narrower pH range (pH 4.0) than the free enzyme (pH 3.0 to 5.0). Besides, the encapsulated enzyme showed an increase in the stability in the pH range between 7 and 8 and above 10 to 12.