Enzymes in industry—production and applications (second, completely revised edition). Edited by Wolfgang Aehle. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, 2004. ISBN 3 527 29592 5. pp xxiv + 484
✍ Scribed by C Bucke
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 42 KB
- Volume
- 79
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-2575
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Book reviews
Enzymes in industry-production and applications (second, completely revised edition) Edited by Wolfgang Aehle Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, 2004 ISBN 3 527 29592 5 pp xxiv + 484, price £105.00
There are many books on enzymes, some describing what they do in nature, some describing how they may be used, some describing how they are used. This valuable volume is one of the latter. All but two of the 48 contributors are from companies that produce or use enzymes commercially: between them they provide 2080 references, up to date to 2002 but not omitting mention of the crucial work done in the 1970s and 1980s to develop enzyme technologies.
After a couple of brief but useful chapters describing the basics of enzymes, their structures, nomenclature, their modes of action, methods of measurement of activity, factors affecting stability, comes a more extensive chapter covering enzyme production, purification, immobilisation and presentation for sale. The need to continue to find new enzymes is recognised in a chapter describing methods of screening for enzymes, using traditional and molecular biological methods, and methods for manipulating enzymes by protein engineering. The material in these chapters could be found elsewhere.
Applications of enzymes are described in two very substantial sections, one on industrial enzymes, the other on non-industrial enzyme usage. These are the truly valuable parts of the volume. Perfectly appropriately, food uses of enzymes come first, in baking, fruit juice production, fruit processing, then in brewing. Dairy applications obtain the extensive coverage that they merit, as do means of processing meat and fish. Perhaps confusingly, use of enzymes in corn wet-milling and starch processing are described in the 'non-food' section, after a fascinating description of uses of enzymes in domestic and commercial detergents for cleaning fabrics, dishes, cutlery, etc. It is only in volumes written by practitioners that one learns the unexpected, for instance that it is so difficult to remove clothes stains caused by products containing galactomannans that it has been necessary, and worthwhile, for a recombinant mannanase to be developed for use in detergents. Other non-food uses are in animal feeds, textile production, pulp and paper processing, plus several other more minor applications.
The 'non-industrial uses' section begins with a concise coverage of biotransformations, several of