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Abstract
Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer in nature and is the major component of lignocellulosic biomass. It has potential to produce not only glucose but value–added products such as cellobiose and oligosaccharides. Typically, enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose produces glucose and a small amount of cellobiose. Modification of cellulase solutions altered ratio of glucose to cellobiose produced. The addition of glucose oxidase, gluconolactone, or gluconic acid significantly increased the amount of cellobiose remaining at the end of cellulose hydrolysis. Addition of glucose oxidase resulted in cellobiose being 23.7% of the product sugars from pure cellulose and 14.1% from ligonocellulose (sugarcane bagasse). The presence of gluconolactone in the reaction mixture increased cellobiose to 31.3% of the sugars from cellulose and 15.8% from bagasse. The presence of gluconic acid changed the cellobiose to 21.9% of the sugars from cellulose and 13.2% from bagasse. In order to produce cellobiooligosaccharides, a dextransucrase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides B-512FMCM was employed to catalyze the transglycosylation reaction between cellobiose and sucrose. The major cellobiooligosaccharides were the trisaccharides, α-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-cellobiose and α-Dglucopyranosyl-(1→6)-cellobiose. Cellobio-oligosaccharides have valuable functional properties as potential antifungal and anticariogenic agents, and an α-glucosidase inhibitor.
