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Published on: May 16, 2022
Oil production by Mortierella isabellina from whey treated with lactase
Muammer Demir1, Irfan Turhan, Ahmet Kucukcetin
1Akdeniz University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Food Engineering, Antalya 07058, Turkey. mdemir@akdeniz.edu.tr
Abstract:
Whey, a by-product of cheese manufacturing is rich in nutrients such as lactose, proteins, and mineral salts. The fungus Mortierella isabellina was used for production of oil containing γ-linoleic acid (GLA) during fermentation on deproteinized whey permeate (DP-WP) with and without lactase addition. The maximum oil concentration was 3.65 g/L in DP-whey (16.0% lactose) without enzyme treatment. Treatment of DP-WP with lactase resulted in an increase in oil content to 17.13 g/L. Palmitic (22.50-25.80%) and oleic acids (37.60-48.56%) were the major fatty acids along with GLA (2.18-5.48%), linoleic (16.21-22.43%) and stearic acid (3.20-10.08%). This study suggests that whey can be utilized as a feedstock for production of microbial oil.
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