Enzyme for flour

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Background

Hemicellulase and alpha-amylase activity acts on flour pentosans and starch to improve dough elasticity and volume of yeast-raised baked goods.

Hemicellulase

Hemicellulase is an enzyme capable of degrading hemicellulose present in the cell walls of plants. Hemicellulose is a glucose polymer linked to a monosaccharide, which can be a five-carbon polymer such as xylose or a six-carbon polymer such as galactose, mannose or rhamnose. Hemicellulase belongs to the enzyme family of sugar hydrolases. It acts by breaking the bonding of glucose and polymers present in plant fibers with water molecules. The enzymatic reaction leads to the hydrolysis of hemicellulose.

Application

• Animal husbandry

Adding hemicellulase to feed can promote the digestion and absorption of fat and protein in animals and improve the conversion rate of feed, the enzyme preparation composed of hemicellulase and protease can also increase the daily weight gain of piglets and reduce the mortality rate of piglets.

• Food industry

Hemicellulase can decompose the galactose in coffee into oligosaccharides, which greatly reduces the viscosity of coffee and thus reduces the production cost of instant coffee, hemicellulase can hydrolyze xylan in cereal flour to produce xylo-oligosaccharides, thus greatly improving the texture structure and fluffiness of bread.

• In paper industry

Bleaching of sulfate pulp with hemicellulase has a great enhancement effect, and hemicellulase reduces the amount of chlorine required by improving the bleachability of pulp, thus reducing environmental pollution and improving the whiteness of paper, while reducing production costs. Pre-bleaching of sulfate pulp with hemicellulase is an important development direction in the future pulp and paper industry.

Alpha-amylase

Alpha-amylase is an endoglucosidase, which is an amylase. It can cut starch into short chain dextrins of different lengths and a small amount of low molecular sugars, thus causing the viscosity of starch paste to drop rapidly, i.e. reducing the consistency and "liquefying", so this kind of amylase is also called liquefying enzyme. Ca²⁺ has certain ability to activate and improve amylase activity, and also has certain effect on its stability.

Distribution

Alpha amylase is distributed in animals (saliva, pancreas, etc.), plants (malt, beetle) and microorganisms. Almost all microbial enzymes are secreted. This enzyme is Ca²⁺ -required and acts as a stabilizing and activating factor, while some amylases are non- Ca²⁺ -dependent. Amylases act on both straight-chain and branched-chain starches, indiscriminately and randomly cutting the α-1,4-chains within the sugar chain. Therefore, it is characterized by a sharp decrease in the viscosity of the substrate solution and the disappearance of the iodine reaction. On the other hand, when decomposing branched chain starch, in addition to maltose, glucose and maltotriose, α-extreme dextrin (also called α-dextrin) with α-1,6-bonds is also produced in the branching part. In general, the decomposition limit is 35-50% for glucose, but in bacterial amylases, up to 70% of the decomposition limit (finally free of glucose) is also presented.

In pathology

The test for amylase is easier to perform than that for lipase, making it the primary test used to detect and monitor pancreatitis. Medical laboratories will usually measure either pancreatic amylase or total amylase. If only pancreatic amylase is measured, an increase will not be noted with mumps or other salivary gland trauma. However, because of the small amount present, timing is critical when sampling blood for this measurement. Blood should be taken soon after a bout of pancreatitis pain, otherwise it is excreted rapidly by the kidneys.