BIOCONVERSION OF STARCH TO MALTOOLIGOSACCHARIDES (MOS) BY THE REACTION OF MALTOGENIC AMYLASE

Maltogenic amylase is one of the significant enzymes in oligosaccharides synthesis. Its ability to utilise multiple substrates and catalyse hydrolysis and transglycosylation reactions simultaneously makes it a unique biocatalyst. The catalysis could be exploited in many ways to obtain oligosaccharides of different lengths and various modified sugars. Nonetheless, one of the major drawbacks of substrate hydrolysis to produce oligosaccharides is the low production of MOS with higher degree of polymerisation. To address this issue, reaction parameter optimisation was performed via one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach on the production of MOS from soluble starch hydrolysis using maltogenic amylase from Bacillus lehensis G1 (MAG1). Optimisation of MAG1 loading, soluble starch loading, temperature, time and pH resulted in the production of 84.87 mg/g MOS with polymerisation degree of 3 to 7 compared to that of 51.60 mg/g obtained before the optimisation process, which recorded 1.64-fold increment. Among all parameters, soluble starch loading gave the most significant impact on the MOS production as the reaction equilibrium is highly affected by substrate concentration. The occurrence of MOS with polymerisation degree of 4 and above, which resulted from starch hydrolysis further confirms the endo-type of MAG1. Because starch is an abundant and inexpensive source of carbohydrate in the world, this study provides a cost-effective MOS production process which is highly relevant for industry.