Performance Comparison of α- and β-Amylases on Chitosan Hydrolysis

The low solubility in common solvent and high viscosity resulting from its high molecular weight (MW) with fiber-like structure prevents a more widespread use of chitosan. This paper presents a performance comparison of nonspecific, commercially available enzymes, α - and β -amylases, for the hydrolysis of chitosan to lower its MW. The results showed that both enzymes demonstrate the ability to be used as catalysts in chitosan hydrolysis with β -amylase having better performance than α -amylase. The chitosan hydrolysis was influenced by not only the enzyme and the chitosan characteristics but also the hydrolysis condition. The optimum pH solution was 4 for α -amylase and 5 for β -amylase. The hydrolysis temperature was found to be optimal at 90 and 50°C for α - and β -amylases, respectively.