Enzyme Crystals and Hydrogel Composite Membranes as New Active Food Packaging Material. Issue 1 (9th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mirabelli, Valentina; Majidi Salehi, Shabnam; Angiolillo, Luisa; Belviso, Benny Danilo; Conte, Amalia; Del Nobile, Matteo Alessandro; Di Profio, Gianluca; Caliandro, Rocco
• Is Part Of: Global challenges. Volume 2:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2018-01-09
• Subjects: antimicrobial food packaging -- hydrogel composite membranes (HCMs) -- hydrogel‐mediated crystallization -- lysozyme -- protein crystallization; Climatic changes -- Periodicals; Sustainable development -- Periodicals; Globalization -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 500
• DOI: 10.1002/gch2.201700089
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2056-6646

Abstract

Abstract: The great antimicrobial and antioxidant potential of enzymes makes them prone to be used as active packaging materials to preserve food from contamination or degradation. Major drawbacks are connected to the use of enzymes freely dispersed in solution, due to reduced protein stability. The immobilization of enzymes on solid supports to create biocatalytic interfaces has instead been proven to increase their stability and efficiency. In this work, it is shown that enzymes crystallized on hydrogel composite membranes (HCMs) can exert an effective antimicrobial action, thus making the composite membrane and crystals biofilm a potential active substrate for food packaging applications. The antimicrobial hen egg white lysozyme is crystallized on the surface of the hydrogel layer of HCMs, and its activity is determined by measuring the decrease in absorbance of Micrococcus lysodeikticus culture incubated with the specimen. The overall catalytic efficiency of the antimicrobial HCMs increases by a factor of 2 compared to the pure enzyme dissolved in solution at the same quantity. Because the enzyme in crystalline form is present in higher concentration and purity than in the solution, both its overall catalytic efficiency and antimicrobial action increase. Moreover, the hydrogel environment allows a better protein stabilization and retention during crystals dissolution. Abstract : Composite membranes supporting a homogeneous hydrogel layer are used as building blocks to develop new biofilms based on lysozyme crystals. Its antimicrobial activity is much bigger than that shown by free lysozyme in solution, or even by films containing lysozyme immobilized in the molecular form. Lysozyme crystals and hydrogel composite membranes represent a promising surface material for food packaging applications.