Employment of polysaccharides in enzyme immobilization

Analogous to free enzymes, immobilized enzymes are sturdy and resistant to environmental alterations. With unmatched high catalytic activity, turnover number, and selectivity, enzymes have the potential to utilize them as catalysts concerning practical applications which sometimes might get an obstacle due to the low thermal and chemical stability of enzymes. One of the best and out of numerous tested approaches, enzyme immobilization which makes use of varied enzyme-carrier interaction has made a remarkable dissimilarity. Another concerning concept, discussed here in this review, is the exploitation of polysaccharides which are carbohydrates made up of more than ten to thousands of monosaccharides linked through glycosidic bonds. Numerous natural polysaccharides (cellulose, chitin, alginate, starch, carrageenan, pectin, etc.) base supports have been utilized in the recent past by amalgamating diverse immobilization techniques such as adsorption, covalent binding, entrapment, encapsulation, affinity immobilization, etc. The call for polysaccharides all over the globe has increased in the past few years due to their elevated usage in diverse sectors as a resource for green and sustainable materials. Additionally, such base supports are easily available, have an easy fabrication process, insolubility in an aqueous environment, are biocompatible, non-toxic, biodegradable, and physiologically inert. Undoubtedly, considering highly effective, economical, and skilled biotechnological processes, it is, nowadays, regarded as a promising approach for monitoring environmental conditions, textile-based industries, biotransformation, pharmaceutics, diagnostics, and food industries. This review gives an insight into a brief background of an enzyme, the merits of the enzyme immobilization approach, and why the concept of exploitation of polysaccharides with enzyme immobilization is grabbing a lot of attention from researchers nowadays.