Purification and characterization of the olive fruit beta-glucosidase involved in the biosynthesis of virgin olive oil phenolic

Abstract

The importance of plantb-glucosidases to food quality is in factderived from their ability to hydrolyze flavor recursors, liberat-ing aglycone moieties that provide desirable organoleptic properties to plant-derived foods. Despite the importance of oliveb-glucosidase from this physiological point of view and as a keybiological factor closely related to olive fruit and Virgin OliveOil (VOO) quality, there is limited information on its catalyticcharacteristics. The aim of this study was to purify and charac-terizeb-glucosidase activity present in olive fruit which hydro-lyze the main phenolic glycosides accumulated in the olive fruit.Oliveb-glucosidase was purified to apparent homogeneity frommature fruits Edremit and Uslu varieties (Olea europaeacv.) byselective extraction and successive anion exchange and hydro-phobic interaction chromatographic procedures. Kinetic parame-ters were determined oliveb-glucosidase using p-nitrophenyl-b- D-glucopyranoside (pNPG) as a substrat. According to itscatalytic properties, the implication of the purified oliveb-gluco-sidase on the synthesis of virgin olive oil phenolics will bediscussed.