Purification of polygalacturonase from Aspergillus awamori Nakazawa MTCC 6652 and its application in apple juice clarification

Polygalacturonase (PG) is necessary during fruit juice clarification process for the degradation of insoluble viscous pectinacious compounds. In the present study, PG from Aspergillus awamori Nakazawa MTCC 6652 produced by solid-state fermentation of mosambi (Citrus sinensis var mosambi) peel was decolorized and purified 34.8 fold with 69.8% recovery exploiting activated charcoal. The SDS-PAGE profiling revealed molecular weight of the purified PG as 30 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature of the purified enzyme were 4.5 and 50 °C, respectively. After decolorization and purification it was applied in the apple juice clarification process. The clarified juice exhibited 38% viscosity reduction with % T660 of 93%, A420 of 0.3 and pH 3.