Naringinase

Naringinase is a debittering enzyme that is used in commercial production of grapefruit juice. It breaks down the compound Naringin in grapefruit juice that gives it a bitter taste. It is a multienzyme complex which possesses alpha l-rhamnosidse and beta glucosidase activity. The E.C. No.(3.2.1.40) of the naringinase and rhamnosidase are the same. It firstly breaks the naringin into the prunin, i.e. less bitter substances, and lastly it breaks the prunin in to the glucose. In this way fruit juice is debittered. Ram gene is a rare gene, it is found in very few microorganisms like some Bacillus species and mainly naringin is hydolysed by the Aspergillus Niger, but production of naringinase from the fungus is a difficult task as the growing rate is much slower for fungi than the bacteria.^[1][2][3][4]

References

1. ^ Puri, Munish; Kalra, Sukirti (2005). "Purification and characterization of naringinase from a newly isolated strain of Aspergillus niger 1344 for the transformation of flavonoids". World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 21 (5): 753. doi:10.1007/s11274-004-5488-7. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14075338/Purification-and-characterization-of-naringinase-from-a-newly-isolated-strain-of-Aspergillus-niger-1344-for-the-transformation-of-flavonoids. 
2. ^ Studies on the applicability of alginateentrapped naringinase for the debittering of kinnow juice, Elsevier
3. ^ Puri, M; Banerjee, UC (2000). "Production, purification, and characterization of the debittering enzyme naringinase". Biotechnology Advances 18 (3): 207–17. doi:10.1016/S0734-9750(00)00034-3. PMID 14538108. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14075331/Research-review-paper-Production-purification-and-characterization-of-the-debittering-enzyme-naringinase. 
4. ^ Puri, Munish; Banerjee, Anirban; Banerjee, U.C. (2005). "Optimization of process parameters for the production of naringinase by Aspergillus niger MTCC 1344". Process Biochemistry 40: 195. doi:10.1016/j.procbio.2003.12.009. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14075239/Optimization-of-process-parameters-for-the-production-of-naringinase-by-Aspergillus-niger-MTCC-1344.