Banana peel wastes as a source of tyrosinase useful in the production of l-DOPA

Abstract

Tyrosinase from the banana peel (TBp) served as a low-cost immobilized biocatalyst for the production of 3, 4-di hydroxyphenyl-l-alanine (l-DOPA). l-DOPA, a dopamine precursor, useful in the management of Parkinson's disease, was produced in improvised reactors. l-DOPA production by the immobilized TBp was optimized via response surface methodology (RSM). l-DOPA productivities obtained at equimolar substrate concentrations and 500 mg of TBp for the packed bed and batch process (BP) were 34.0 ± 2.1 and 15.4 ± 0.9 mg/L/h respectively. The resulting l-DOPA productivity in the BP after the RSM model validation was 63 ± 3.0 mg/L/h. There was a good fit with the model obtained based on the closeness of the predicted and experimental values. After four successive batch processes, about 35% loss in l-DOPA productivity was observed. In conclusion, banana peel served as a relatively cheap and easily available source of tyrosinase for the production of l-DOPA in both batch and packed bed reactors.