Development of a highly efficient oil degumming process using a novel phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C enzyme from Bacillus thuringiensis PL14

The present work reports the heterologous expression and biochemical characterization of a novel phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C from Bacillus thuringiensis PL14 (PI-PLCBt) with potential for oil degumming. As degumming is a necessary refining step for all crude vegetable oils, enzymatic degumming tests were performed on crude soybean oil using rPI-PLCBt. Its efficiency was investigated by determining the phosphorus and diacylglycerol (DAG) contents after different types of treatment. Although the water and chemical degumming process can efficiently reduce the phosphorus content, a specific enzymatic process can still be selected giving its high degumming efficiency of 89.4%, with a noticeable reduction in phosphorus content to 13.7 mg kg−1, close to the values of the chemical approach, and a high increase in DAG. Accordingly, enzymatic degumming could be adopted as an alternative to traditional degumming making the process more efficient, eco-friendly and, at the same time, increasing the nutritional value of the final product.