Abstract: Powdered or granulated enzyme preparations, free of surface active agents and containing a protease as the active enzyme, wherein the protease is present as a tannin complex, with the proviso that the enzyme preparation consists of at least 50 percent by weight and up to 99.9 percent by weight of one or more conventional diluent salts. Methods for soaking and bating skins and hides using such preparations.

Abstract: This invention relates to a recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which can be isolated from Aspergillus soyae, characterised in that it codes for a leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and comprises a nucleotide sequence corresponding to the nucleotide sequence given in SEQ ID NO: 1 for the mature LAP or to a nucleotide sequence derived therefrom which hybridises under stringent conditions with the nucleotide sequence given in SEQ ID NO: 1 for the mature LAP. The invention further relates to vectors and transformed host organisms, and also relates to methods of producing LAP. Enzyme products for the production of protein hydrolysates, as well as protein hydrolysates which are produced correspondingly, also form part of the invention.

Abstract: A degumming step in the production of edible oils is disclosed. Vegetable oils from which hydratable phosphatides have preferably been eliminated by a previous aqueous degumming process, are freed from non-hydratable phosphatides by an enzymatic treatment, so that they may be physically refined. The main characteristic of the invention is the use of phospholipase from an Aspergillus strain. The process is gentle, economical and environment-friendly.

Abstract: The content of phosphorus-containing components and the iron content of an edible vegetable or animal oil, preferably an oil such as soybean oil which has been wet-refined to remove mucilage, are reduced by enzymatic decomposition by contacting the oil with an aqueous solution of phospholipases A.sub.1, A.sub.2, or B and then separating the aqueous phase from the treated oil.

Abstract: A method for making a stable aqueous liquid formulation containing at least one enzyme having proteolytic activity is disclosed. The method involves precipitating the enzyme from an aqueous medium with a salt to form a dispersion of the enzyme. The dispersion has a density of 1.22 g/cm.sup.3 to 1.23 g/cm.sup.3 due to the use of the salt. This process yields a sedimentation-resistant stable enzyme dispersion.

Abstract: Methods for adsorbing a protein, for example an enzyme, onto an insoluble, solid, macroporous, small-particle support by washing said support with an aqueous solution of the protein containing an electrolyte in an ionic strength of at least 0.15 mole/liter and crosslinking said protein, before, during, or after such adsorption, with a coupling component present in aqueous electrolyte-containing solution.

Abstract: A method for making beer is disclosed wherein an amyloglucosidase enzyme from a Rhizopus culture is added to a wort and, after the enzyme has acted, the enzyme is inactivated under pasteurizing conditions.

Abstract: A process and reactor are disclosed for the continuous treatment of a turbid liquid with a granular treating agent placed in a fixed bed through which the liquid flows. Preferably, the liquid is whey and the treating agent is lactase immobilized on support particles, and treatment involves hydrolysis of lactose in the whey. During treatment, the flow of whey through the fixed bed is periodically interrupted and a flow of cleansing liquid is passed through the fixed bed countercurrent to the flow of whey. The flow of cleansing liquid is under sufficient hydrostatic pressure to press the fixed bed against moving fragmentation devices to separate and fluidize the support particles into a fluidized bed whereby the support particles containing immobilized lactase are cleansed by removing material deposited thereon from the whey.

Abstract: (1) A method for making a water soluble synthetic solid polymer product, which method comprises polymerizing a solution of a water soluble monomer, or of a mixture of monomers which are exclusively or predominantly water soluble monomers, in an aqueous medium in the presence of 0.5 to 50 percent, by weight of said monomer or monomers, of at least one member selected from the group consisting of water soluble solid monosaccharides and oligosaccharides, and (2) the directly millable polymer product having a low degree of crosslinking which is prepared thereby and which is useful as a flocculant, dispersing agent, thickening agent, water treating agent, coating agent or the like.

Abstract: What are disclosed are a method for making a pearl-like crosslinked hydrophilic carrier polymer, capable of binding proteins, by the inverse pearl polymerization of a monomer phase comprising a monomer mixture of a certain composition and a diluent therefor, also of a certain composition, said diluent comprising at least two components which can be chosen in nature and amount to optimize the protein binding capacity of the polymer, and pearl-like hydrophilic carrier polymers made by this method.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a method for the free-radical polymerization, at a temperature between 0.degree. C. and 100.degree. C. using ultraviolet light, of a material to be polymerized which comprises at least one unsaturated monomer, which method comprises adding an ultraviolet absorber which is only weakly effective or is inert as a free-radical initiator to the material to be polymerized, initiating polymerization of the material in an initiation phase by irradiation thereof with ultraviolet light, controlling the further course of the polymerization in a polymerization phase by increasing the intensity of the irradiating ultraviolet light with time, and concluding the polymerization by irradiation with ultraviolet light in a terminal phase, said ultraviolet absorber absorbing in the wavelength region of the irradiating ultraviolet light.

Abstract: What is disclosed are stable aqueous solutions, useful for example to treat water to stabilize its hardness and to render it anticorrosive or biocidal, containing a dissolved cationic component, such as polyvalent metal cation or a cationic surface active agent, and a dissolved anionic vinyl copolymer comprising both anionic monomer units having a carboxylic acid group and units of a anionic monomer having an ammonium group.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a pearl polymer product, a method of making the same, and the use thereof as a carrier for biologically active materials, said product being composed of hollow pearl particles having a diameter from 5 to 1000 microns and consisting of a cross-linked polymer which is a cross-linked homopolymer or copolymer comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of acrylamide, methacrylamide, methylene-bis-acrylamide and methylene-bis-methacrylamide, said polymer containing at least 5 percent by weight of a monomer having at least two carbon-carbon double bonds which are activated by a neighboring phenyl group or carbonyl group, said polymer further being of a composition such that x+3y.gtoreq.40, where x is the percent by weight in the polymer of acrylamide and methacrylamide and y is the percent by weight in the polymer of methylene-bis-acrylamide and methylene-bis-methacrylamide.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a pearl polymer product, a method of making the same, and the use thereof as a carrier for biologically active materials, said product being composed of hollow pearl particles having a diameter from 5 to 1000 microns and consisting of a cross-linked polymer which is a cross-linked homopolymer or copolymer comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of acrylamide, methacrylamide, methylene-bis-acrylamide and methylene-bis-methacrylamide, said polymer containing at least 5 percent by weight of a monomer having at least two carbon-carbon double bonds which are activated by a neighboring phenyl group or carbonyl group, said polymer further being of a composition such that x+3y.gtoreq.40, where x is the percent by weight in the polymer of acrylamide and methacrylamide and y is the percent by weight in the polymer of methylene-bis-acrylamide and methylene-bis-methacrylamide.

Abstract: A method for polymerizing or copolymerizing water-soluble monomers, in a layer thickness between 2 and 100 mm, and at a temperature between 0.degree. C. and 100.degree. C., by irradiation with ultraviolet light in the presence of atmospheric oxygen, wherein the material to be polymerized contains at least 1 ppm of a water-soluble anthraquinone unsubstituted in the 1,4,5, and 8-positions and at least 10 ppm of dissolved chloride ions.

Abstract: Water-swellable, cross-linked, bead copolymers of (A) an ethylenically unsaturated monomer having a carboxylic acid anhydride, glycidyl or succinimide group, (B) a comonomer having at least two radical-polymerizable carbon double bonds, and (C) a radical-polymerizable water-soluble comonomer are disclosed to be excellent carriers capable of bonding with biologically active substances such as enzymes, enzyme substrates, inhibitors, hormones, antibiotics, antigens, and peptides.

Abstract: Methods for bonding a polypeptide to a macro-molecular carrier compound by irradiating an aqueous solution of the polypeptide, in the absence of oxygen and in the presence of said carrier compound, with ultraviolet light in the optional presence of a photosensitizer or with visible light in the presence of a photosensitizer and an organic peroxide.

Abstract: Polymer dispersions in which an aqueous phase comprising a water-soluble polymer is dispersed in an organic liquid in the presence of a polymeric water-in-oil type dispersing agent containing salt-forming basic nitrogen atoms. When the dispersion is mixed with water in the presence of an acid, which acid may be present in the aqueous or organic phase of the dispersion or added separately, the dispersing agent transforms into an oil-in-water type, the previously dispersed polymer dissolves in the water, and the previously continuous organic phase is dispersed in the water.Methods of making such polymer dispersions.Methods of forming aqueous solutions of water-soluble polymers by combining such dispersions with water in the presence of an acid.