Comparative study of the lipolytic activities of some fungi and lactobacillus species isolated from some Nigeria local foodstuff

Abstract

This study is aimed at extracting lipase enzyme from three lactic acid bacteria and some fungi for a comparative study of their lipase activities. Lipase enzyme is useful in the degradation and detoxification of “bad”cholesterol in food and raw materials. In this study the submerged fermentation method was applied in the extraction of lipase from Lactobacillusplantarum, Lactobacilluscasei and Lactobacillus fermentumand the fungal isolates. Their corresponding lipase activity values were 1.2μmol/min/ml (Lactobacillusplantarum), 0.7μmol/min/ml(Lactobacilluscasei) and 1.9 μmol/min/ml (Lactobacillus fermentum). The fungi isolate namely G4 (Penicillium spp.), G5 (Rhizopus spp.), M3 (Aspergillus niger), M4 (Fusarium oxysporium) and M8 (Fusarium moniliforme), had the following corresponding lipase activity values: G4 (11.25 μmol/min/ml), G5 (2.92 μmol/min/ml), M3 (3.75 μmol/min/ml), M4 (2.92 μmol/min/ml) and M8 (6.25 μmol/min/ml). The result of the study indicates that microbial enzymes from fungi had better potentials as best sources of lipase degrading enzymes. The high level of lipase activity from fungi could be attributed to the fact that most fungi are spore formers and the multiplicity of spores could enhance increased lipase production. It is therefore recommended that researchers should source lipase enzymes both for environmental bioremediation and degradation of unhealthy fats in foodstuff from fungi species.

Keywords: Lipase, fungi, Lactobacillus, degradation, fermentation