Effect of Temperature, pH, Ions and Solvents on Glycerol Ester Hydrolase produced from Rhizopus sp.

The present study is concerned with the production of lipase by Rhizopus sp. in enzyme assay medium supplemented with 1% olive oil. Different parameters namely incubation time, temperature, pH, solvents, ions and inhibitors have been extensively studied. The maximum enzyme production was recorded on the 5^th day at 45°C, whereas optimum pH was 6.5. Addition of Ca⁺² and Ag⁺ ions enhanced the enzyme activity whereas Hg²⁺ and Co²⁺ showed the strongly inhibitory effect. On the study of solvents for the activity using 50 µl/ml concentration of assay mixture in shaking condition, acetaldehyde, chloroform and formic acid slightly enhanced the activity where as acetic acid and formic acid reduced the activity to as little as 10% of the original activity.