Degumming rice bran oil using phospholipase-A1

The efficacy of enzymatic degumming was assessed using the third generation phospholipase-A(1), Lecitase (R)-Ultra (EC 3.1.1.3) from Thermomyces lanuginosa/Fusarium oxysporum with different qualities of crude rice bran oil. The phosphorus content in the oil reduced to similar to 10 mg/kg from an initial level of 390 mg/kg after 2 h of incubation period at 50 degrees C. However, in the solvent-phase degumming, there was practically no phospholipid reduction at lower water content (2%) due to the poor contact between the highly nonpolar solvent and the aqueous phase (citric acid, NaOH, and enzyme solutions). Increasing the water content to 20% reduced the phosphorus level in the degummed-oil to 71 mg/kg but did not match the performance of oil-phase degumming. The degumming efficiency of Lecitase (R)-Ultra was effective in oil-phase and suitable for practical application. Solvent-phase enzymatic degumming offers more benefits but needs greater efforts to overcome the challenges.